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■r « 



BRITISH OPIUM POLICY 



AKD ITS RESULTS TO 



INDIA AND CHINA. 



BT 

P. S. TURNER, B.A. 



FOBMERLT OP THE LONDON MISSIONARY SOCIBTT; 
8RCRETAUT OF THE ANOLO-ORIENTAL 80CIETT FOR THE SUPPRESSION 

OF THE OPIUM TRADE. 




SAMPSON LOW, MARSTON, SEAIILE, & RIVINGTON, 
CROWN BUILDINaS, 188, FLEET STREET. 

1876. 



Qi>2. e. S>J5. 



LONDON : 
GILBERT AND BITINGTON, PBTNTBB8, 
ST. JOHN'S SQUABS. 



PREFACE. 



TflBSE chapters were written in the earlier months of 
1874, in response to an advertisement inserted in 
several newspapers inviting competitive essays upon 
" British Opium Policy, and its Results to India and 
China." The author did not see the advertisement 
until some time after its appearance, and the brief 
interval allowed for the composition of the book was 
for him abbreviated by the necessity of simultaneously 
carrying on other labours. Marks of haste were 
inevitable ; these have been, as far as possible, 
removed in the process of revision for the press; 
but he fears that the following pages stiU bear some 
traces of the circumstances of their production. 

Several months after the book was completed a 
society, of which the author had the honour to be 
appointed secretary, was formed to diffuse infor- 
mation upon the subject, and to appeal to the 
conscience of our Government and people against 
the trade. This society now publishes the present 
work, hoping that it will do service by promoting a 

A 2 



IV PREFACE. 

discussion of tlie real merits of the question. The 
particular statements and opinions herein contained, 
however, are put forth on the author's sole respon- 
sibility; and the society he has the honour to serve 
must not be held accountable for more than a general 
approval of the design of the book. 

Nearly two years have elapsed since the book was 
written, during which time the opium question has 
been debated in Parliament and the press. The 
author has taken advantage of the process of revision 
to alter statistics to the latest dates, to add a few 
foot-notes and introduce some new matter into the 
appendix, and to excise or qualify a few hasty 
expressions. But the substance of the book remains 
the same, and the chief result of two years' farther 
study of the subject, and of interchange of thought 
with many minds upon it, has been to intensify the 
writer's conviction that England is verily guilty in 
this matter. If only the nation could be aroused to feel 
the absolute necessity of some change for the better, 
the writer's chief end will be gained ; and he would 
not repine though the spirit of reformation should 
work in other modes than he has indicated. In the 
meantime he has seen no cause to alter his opinion 
that the right course would be to abandon the opium 
monopoly, and to relieve China from the treaty 
obligation to admit opium, promismg her, in lieu 
thereof, our honest and hearty aid in every effort put 



PREFACJE. V 

forth by the Chinese authorities to prohibit the trade 
on their own coasts. 

A word or two may be permitted here in explana- 
tion of the author's dislike to the opium monopoly. 
An able writer in the Gontemporanj Review (Feb., 
] 876) urges that the wickedness lies, not in raising 
money from opium by monopoly rather than by tax, 
but in encouraging the production of opium, and in 
compelling the Chinese to admit the opium thus pro- 
duced. The author admits that the monopoly powers 
now possessed by the Indian Government might 
conceivably be used for exactly the contrary purpose 
to that for which they have been and are used, viz. 
to prevent, instead of to provide for export to China. 
It is also possible, on the other hand, that the Indian 
Government, if dispossessed of the monopoly, might 
encourage the production of opium by private indi- 
viduals for the sake of revenue. Therefore, if such 
a change should ever be proposed by the Govern- 
ment, it will be needful to watch the process, for 
the purpose of preventing the public being deceived 
by a sham reform. Nor will it be wise to expect 
from any such change a substantial and permanent 
relief of the Chinese. The Chinese themselves must 
put down the opium trade in China. Our business 
is to remove the obstacles we have placed in the way 
of their doing so, and to encourage and assist them in 
contending against the vice to the best of our ability. 



VI PEEFACE. 

While so far agreeing with the Contemporaryy the 
author nevertheless cannot recant his profession of 
political faith. To his mind, promotion of an evil and 
permission of an evil are not the same thing, either in 
the case of an individual or of that collection of 
individuals called a Government. There are evils 
which we cannot wisely interfere with, but which it 
would be shame for us to encourage. Besides this 
theoretical objection, there is a very grave practical 
objection to the monopoly. As the Marquis of 
Salisbury pointed out to the deputation the other 
^ay> hy means of the monopoly the Government 
secures for itself the merchants' profit as well as the 
tax. The trade never having been in private hands 
from time immemorial, there is no class of persons 
deprived of an advantage which they miss through 
the prohibition of private trade. Hence it has 
happened that the Government of India has been 
able to extract millions from China without their 
own subjects feeling the pressure at all. The temp- 

4 

tation has been irresistible, and the writer fears it 
will be irresistible unto the end. So long as that 
monopoly endures the Indian Government will 
work it, as they have hitherto worked it, to enrich 
their treasury, regardless of the consequences to 
China. 

The author, therefore, cannot withdraw his 
protest against the- Indian Government's direct 



PBBFACE. vii 



participation in the opium trade. Nevertheless, 
as this book will show, he always regarded the 
iniquity of forcing the drug into China as incom- 
parably greater than that of having a Grovernmental 
connexion with it in India. If insisting upon the 
removal of the lesser evil has diverted attention 
from the more serious one, nobody more sincerely 
regrets the error in policy than himself. A new 
session of Parliament is before us, and events have 
drawn the public attention to China. It is to be 
hoped that we shall prove we have learned wisdom 
by experience, and shall not fail to make good use of 
Aiture opportunities. 

Canada Building, King Street, Westminster, 

24th February, 1876. 



CONTENTS. 

CHAPTER I. 
The Question stated. 



PAGR 



Opium, a medicine ; a stimulant ; used chieflj in China — 
Relations of England, India, and China to opium — 
Question stated — Origin of the difficulty — East India 
Company — Grand Mogul — Increase of the Revenue — 
Dependence upon it — Who is responsible ? — Guilt not 
to be taken for granted 1 

CHAPTER II. 
Opium as a Stimulant, morally considered. 

The use of Stimulants in general — Opium must be con- 
sidered by itself — Opium not better than Alcohol — 
Jardiue, Matheson, and Co's. opinion — Two arguments 
in support of it — Missionary testimony and its value — 
Sir R, Alcock — Sir Thomas Wade — Heu Naetse's 
testimony — An old Chinese Scholar — Opium in Assam 
— Opium in Burma — Opium in China — Opium com- 
pared with drink — Moderate Opium-smoking? — Rev.G. 
John's opinion — Consul Winchester's opinion — Some 
smokers moderate — The majority immoderate — An 
argument from human nature — ChinjBse opinion — Con- 
clusions from foregoing survey — (1) Opium not used for 
diet — (2) Seductive power of Opium — (3) Difference 
between opium-smoking and drinking — (4) The former 
harder to give up — No statistical information as to 
number of smokers — Missionary hospitals, and ex- 
perience of travellers — Sir R. Alcock docs not believe 
in moderation — National opinion in China . . .10 



CONTENTS. 

CHAPTER III. 
The East India Company's Opium Policy. 



PAQE 



Repression and Revenue — Principles of taxation — Repres- 
sion in India — Mr. C.W. Bell's evidence — H. St. George 
Tucker's do. — Despatch of the Directors — Prohibition 
of the poppy in Bombay — Result of the Policy as 
afiecting India — Patna and Malwa — The Monopoly — 
Abuse of the system of advances — An Argument in 
favour of the Monopoly — Another argument against it 
— Opium for export — Revenue fostered — Its increase — 
Rivalry of Malwa opium — Monopoly in Malwa ex- 
changed for a duty — The Company's chief customer — 
Proportion sent to China — James Mill's opinion — Taxes 
on foreigners — Our duty to China — ^A parable — The 
Company's indifference and hypocrisy ... 40 



CHAPTER IV. 

Opium Policy op the British Government. 

Responsibility of Britain for the East India Company — 
Parliamentary Committee of 1832 — British policy de- 
scribed — Opening of the China Trade — Lord Napier's 
mission — Chinese exclusiveness and arrogance — 
Embassies of Lord Macartney and Lord Amherst — 
Instructions to Lord Napier — Connivance at the 
smuggling trade— Sir J. F. Davis at Lintin — Sir 
G. B. Robinson — Native smuggling put down — The 
foreigners persist in the contraband trade — Difficult 
position of Captain Elliot — Applies for ships of war — 
Surrender of the opium — Impolicy of the seizure — Its 
substantial justice— Wai* resolved on — The "Opium" 
war — Debate in Parliament — Character of the war — 
Indemnity exacted — The Trade not legalized — Sir H. 
Pottinger's proclamation — Order in Council — Com- 
plaint of the Chinese— Legalization of the traffic — 
Lord Elgin's hesitation — The United States minister — 
Interview with Chinese statesmen — The legalization 
granted to force— Importance of the opium revenue — 



CONTENTS. XI 

PAGE 

Opposition in the House of Commons — Lord Ashley — 
Sir George Staunton — Legal opinion asked for in the 
House of Lords — Sir W. Lawson's motion — Mr. Mark 
Stewart's motion 65 

CHAPTER V. 

Chinese Anti-opiuh Polict. 

Chinese Government paternal — Homiletic style of its edicts 
— Repression of vice — Opposition to opium sincere — 
Edicts against opium-smoking — Weakness of the 
Government, and corruption of the officials — Choo 
Tsun's reply — Results of the edicts — Warnings to the 
foreigners — Heu Naetse's proposal to legalize the trade 
— Government inquiries — Power of public opinion in 
China — Repressive measures — Foreign merchants to 
be expelled — Mr. Jardine's apology — Decision of the 
Emperor — Obstinacy of the smugglers — Pressure put 
on the Hong merchants — ^Attempted execution in the 
foreign factories — Commissioner Lin — His effort a 
failure— Cause of the failure — The Emperor's con- 
sistency — Opium-smoking still illegal — Punishments in 
Peking — Wen Seang's appeal to Sir R. Alcock —Sir 
R. Alcock's comment thei*eon — Memorandum by Mr. 
Wade — The trade still forced on the Chinese Govern- 
ment • . 101 

CHAPTER VI. 

On Opium Cultivation in China. 

Origin of opium-smoking and date of introduction of the 
poppy into China unknown — Opinions of T. T. Cooper, 
Dr. Wilson — Shanghai Delegates — Progress of the 
poppy from the west eastwards — Shaou Chinghwuh — 
Choo Tsun — R. C. Missionaries — Robinson Crusoe — 
Chinese literature — Our responsibility for opium- 
smoking in China — Chinese opium threatens our 
revenue — Different opinions — Chinese Customs' Re- 
ports, 1869 — Deduction therefrom — Consular Reports 
for 1872 — Comparison of these Consular and Customs* 



Xll CONTENTS. 



PAGE 



Reports, and of both with report for 1863 — Memo, of 
the Indian Government in 1871 — Progress in Eastern 
China in 1873 — Present state of the Case — A possible 
competition which would be fatal to China's prosperity 131 

CHAPTER VII. 

Results of the British Opium Policy. 

Extension of poppy cultivation — Trade laws of demand and 
supply cannot defend it — Interference with supply of 
grain — Famines in India — Danger of China — Yew 
Pehchwan's statement — Results of the Policy to India 
— Increase of consumption — Loss of reputation — 
Dependence upon the revenue'— Nemesis — Growth of 
the revenue — Our abject dependence upon it — Results 
to China — Victims of the pipe — Impoverishment of the 
Country — Wars— Weakening of the Chinese Govern- 
ment — Hostility to foreigners — Danger of war — 
Obstruction of trade aud improvements — Barrier to the 
spread of Christianity — Blight upon Great Britain's 
national reputation — Injury to Britain's moral character. 1 62 

CHAPTER VIII. 

Propositions for an Amended Opium Policy. 

Preliminaiy requisite — Difficulty of touching the Revenue 
— Repentance and its fruits — India must pay her own 
expenses — Indian finance — Retrenchment — Readjust- 
ments—Mr. Fawcett's speech — England's help required 
— First plan, extirpation of the poppy — Recommended 
hesitatingly — Fallacious arguments against the real 
objection — Oriental notions of Government — English 
aversion to legislate for such ends — Sir William Muir's 
scheme — Arguments against, commented on — Sir R. 
Temple and Mr. Maine — Insufficiency of Sir W. Muir's 
plan — Requirements of justice — Immediate and total 
withdrawal from the trade — Removal of coercion from 
the Chinese — Prevention of smuggling — Probable 
results — Conclusions 176 



CONTENTS. 



Xlll 



APPENDIX A. 

Testimonies as to the Effects of Opium-eating and 

Opium-smoking 

PAOR 

I. William Lockhart, F.R.C S., F.R.G.S. . . 219 

11. J. Dudgeon, M.D., CM 224 

III. W. H. Medhurst, H.M. Consul, Shanghai . . 230 

IV. T. T. Cooper 231 

y. Assistant-Surgeon Impej, Opium Examiner . 232 

VI. Dr. Eatwell, Opium Examiner .... 233 

VII. Pareira's Materia Medica 235 

VIII. Sir R. N. C. Hamilton 236 

IX. Sir Benjamin C. Brodie ..... 237 

X. Dr. J. Carnegie 237 

XL De Quincey 237 

XII. Sir D. F. McLeod 239 

XIII. Lieut.-Col. James Todd 240 

XIV. Dr. Oppenheim 240 

XV. Rev. John Griffith 241 

XVI. Dr. J. H. Bridges 242 

XVII. Mr. Fortune 243 

XVIII. Abb^ Hue 243 

XIX. Dr. Medhurst 243 

XX. Mr. A. Wylie 244 

XXI. Dr. Johnston 244 

XXII. Dr. Anstie 244 



APPENDIX B. 



On the Probable Number of Opium-smokers in China. 



Dr. Lockhart 


. 248 


Dr. Dudgeon 


. 249 


Mr. T. T. Cooper .... 


. 251 


Choo Tsun 


. 252 


Rev. Joseph Edkins ... 


. 253 



XIV 



CONTENTS. 



APPENDIX C. 

Action of the Indian Government in Increasing the 
Supply of Opium for the Foreign Trade. 



Introductory Remarks 

Mr. St. George Tucker 

Sir Cecil Beadon 

Sir William Muir 

Honourable J. Strachey 

Honourable W. Grey 

Sir R. Temple 

R. B. Chapman, Esq. 

Sir Rutherford Alcock in Calcutta 



PAGE 

254 
254 
256 
256 
257 
258 
259 
259 
261 



APPENDIX D. 

Historical. 

Extracts from " Correspondence relating to China," 1840 . 254 

Letter to the Queen of England from the Imperial Com- 
missioner Lin 279 

Legal Opinion as to the East India Company's manufacture 

and sale of Opium 283 

Correspondence relating to the Earl of Elgin's Special 

Mission ......... 288 



APPENDIX E. 



Opium in British Burma 



290 



APPENDIX F. 

Progress of Poppy Cultivation in China. 



Quarterly Review 
Rev. G. John . 
Mr. Nusserwanjee 



293 
293 
294 



CONTENTS. 



XV 



Memorial of Yew Peh-Cli*wan 
Consul Sinclair 
Consul Medhurst 



PAGE 

295 
296 
297 



APPENDIX G. 

Statistical. 

iDQport of opium into China, from Consular Report . . 302 

„ ,, ,, from Customs' Report . . 303 
Quarterly Review*^ Statement of the Indian Revenue and 

Expenditure ........ 304 

Export of Indian Opium to China ..... 306 

Net Opium Revenue from 1834-35 306 

Cultivation and Manufacture in India .... 307 

Table of Avemges 308 



FOR THE SUPPRESSION OF THE OPIUM TRADE. 

THE RIGHT REV. THE LORD BISHOP OF RIPON. 

THE RIGHT HON. RUSSELL GURNEY, M.P., P.O., Q.C. 

MR. ALDERMAN W. Mc ARTHUR, M.P. 

SenuBl Council. 



Staffobd Allen, Esq. 
Wh. S. Allen, Esq., M.P. 
Professor Sheldon Amos, M.A. 
EowABD Baines, Esq. 
Rev. G. S. Babbbtt. 

J. GUBNBT BaBCLAT, Esq. 

Dr. T. J. Babnabdo. 

Rev. W. Bbadbn. 

Rev. GoBDON Calthbof, M.A. 

W. T. Chabley, Esq., D.C.L., M.P. 

Lord Alfbed Chubchill. 

J. J. CoLHAN, Esq., M.P. 

Sir Abtuub Cotton. 

James Cowan, Esq., M.P. 

Rev. C. C. Fenn, M.A. 

Sir H. M. Hayelock, Bart., M.P. 

Alfbed Howell, Esq. 

Thomas Hughes, Esq., Q.C., F.S.A. 

Walteb H. James, Esq., M.P. 

Sir J. H. Kenbaway, Bart., M.P. 

A. Lang, Esq. 

Pbovessob Leone Levi, F.S.A., F.S.S. 

Rev. Canon Liddon, D.D., D.C.L. 



Abthub Albbioht, Esq. 
General R. Albxandeb. 
Robbbt Baxteb, Esq. 
F. W. Chesson, Esq. 
P. C. Clayton, Esq. 

R. N. FOWLEB, Esq. 

Rev. H. Gbattan Guinness. 
Samuel Gubney, Esq., F.R.G.S., 

F.L.S. 
Thomas Hanbuby, Esq. 
John Hilton, Esq. 
Henby Hipsley, Esq. 

treasurer— R. N. Fowleb, Esq. 



Fbancis N. Maltby, Esq. 
Hugh Mason, Esq. 
Donald Matheson, Esq. 
A. Mc Abthub, Esq., M.P. 
David M*Labbn, Esq. 
Rev. Canon Milleb, D,D, 
Rev. H. C. Milwabd. 
Hon. Capt. Mobeton. 
Rev. J. Mullens, D.D. 
Ebnbst Noel, Esq., M.P. 
J. W. Pease, Esq., M.P. 
Rev. G. T. Peeks, M.A. 
A. A. Rees, Esq. 
Henbt Richabd, Esq., M.P. 
Hudson Scott, Esq. 
Thomson Shabfe, Esq. 
Rev. C. H. Sfubobon. 
Rev. R. Tabbaham. 
J. Thomson, Esq., F.R.G.S. 
E. O. Tbegelles, Esq. 
E. B. Underhill, Esq., LL.D. 
Rev. C. J. Vaughan, D.D, 
Rev. H. Weight, M.A. 
&c., &c., &c. 

(!Excctttibe CTommittce. 

Edw. Hutchinson, Esq. 

Rev. James Legge, D.D., LL.D. 

W. Lockhabt, Esq., P.'R.C.S., F.R.G.S. 

Mr. Alderman W. Mc Abthub, M.P. 

W. MOBGAN, Esq. 

J. Ov Pabby, Esq. 

Edwabd Pease, Esq. 

Robebt Sawyeb, Esq. 

T. B. Smithies, Esq. 

Edmund Stubge, Esq. 

Joseph Stubge, Esq. 

J. F. Thomas, Esq. 

SecretarB— F. S. Tubnbb, B.A. 



13anlrrB — Messrs. Dimsdale, Fowleb, Babnabd, & Dimbdale, 50, Cornhill. 
(§fi[ceB — Canada Building, King Street, Westminster, S.W. 

Contributions in aid of the Society'* operations will he thankfully received 
by the Treasurer, at Messrs. Dimsdale, Fowleb, & Co.'s Bank, 50, Cornhill, 
by any member of the Executive Committee, or by the Secretary at the Office. 

l*ost- Office Orders please make payable at Parliament Street, S. W, ; Cross 
Cheques, Dimsdale, Fowleb, & Co. 



BRITISH OPIUM POLICY. 



/ 



CHAPTER I. 



THE QUESTION STATED. 



Opium is the milky juice which exudes from the 
seed-pods of the papaver somniferum^ the somniferous 
or white' poppy. The name, derived f5pom ottos, 
vegetable juice which flows naturally from a plant, 
or is drawn off by incision, indicates the high repute 
of the drug in antiquity. Opium still maintains 
its pre-eminence. In Pareira's great work on 
medicines the virtues of this precious drug are 
thus described: "Opium is undoubtedly the most 
important and valuable remedy of the whole Materia 
Medica. For other medicines we have one or more 
substitutes, but for opium, none, — at least in the 
large majority of cases in which its peculiar and 
beneficial influence is required. Its good effects are 
not, as is the case with some valuable medicines, 

^ " The petals yarj from white to red or yiolet, with usually a 
dark purplish spot at the base of each." — Pharmacographia^hy 
Fliickiger and Hanbury. 



/ 



• B 



2 BRITISH OHTJM POLICY. 

remote and contingent; but they are immediate, 
direct, and obvious ; and its operation is not attended 
with pain or discomfort. Furthermore, it is applied, 
and with the greatest success, to the relief of 
maladies of every day's occurrence, some^ of which 
are attended with acute himian suffering." Indige- 
nous in Asia, the first abode of the human species, 
the poppy has long been cultivated in Egypt, Turkey, 
Persia, India, and recently in China and Manchuria. 
It is well known in our gardens, grows wild in 
some parts of England, and is cultivated in Surrey 
for the supply of poppy-heads to the London 
market. From the time of Hippocrates to the 
present day it has been the physician's invalu- 
able aUy in his struggles against disease and 
death! 

But man's greatest banes are next door to his 
chief blessings. The knowledge of good and evil 
have always grown on the same tree. This bene- 
ficent medical agent opium has been perverted from 
its rightful use into a means of vicious, because 
highly injurious, sensual pleasure. When and where 
this perversion first took place we cannot even 
conjecture. It is not until comparatively modern 
times that this secondary use of opium has pushed 
itself into world-wide notoriety. One medical writer 
attributes the growth of the practice to the progress 
of Mohammedanism, which operated as a check to the 
consmnption of intoxicating liquors, and thus cleared 
the way for the insidious advances of this gentler 
but more enslaving stimulant. The drug is not 



THE QUESTION STATED- 3 

equaUy acceptable to all races and all constitutions. 
In Turkey and Persia it has had numerous votaries. 
In India, the great source of supply, it is, in com- 
parison with the population, but sparsely consumed. 
It is in China that the habit of using opium as a 
luxury has mad6 the mightiest strides, and has pro- 
duced those grave consequences which make " the 
opium question '* one of the most serious questions 
of the day. More opium is consumed in China than 
in all the rest of the world, and nearly the whole of 
the opium imported into China is shipped from 
Calcutta and Bombay. The East and the West, 
England, India, and China, act and react upon each 
other through the medium of poppy-juice. Simple 
mention of the relations which these three great 
countries bear to the drug is enough to show 
that a very grave question is involved in the trade : 
England is the grower, manufacturer, and seller; 
India furnishes the farm and the factory; China 
is buyer and consumer. The question which ob- 
viously arises is this, is it morally justifiable and 
politically expedient for the English nation to con- 
tinue the production and sale of a drug so dele- 
terious to its consumers ? Before, however, we enter 
upon a consideration of this question, we must ex- 
plain how it has come to pass that the British nation 
has got into this unseemly position. Otherwise the 
feet that the British Government is actually impli- 
cated in such a trade may well appear incredible. 

If, for instance, any minister could be shameless 
enough to suggest that England shotdd embark on 

B 2 



4 BRITISH OPIUM POLICY. 

a vast scale into the business of distillers, and with 
national funds, by servabts of Government, under 
inspection and control of Parliament, produce and 
export annually ten or twenty millions' worth of 
gin and whiskey to intoxicate the populous tribes 
of Central Africa, he would be greeted by a general 
outcry of indignation. Yet the very thing which we 
scout as an imagination, we consent to as a reality. 
We are maintaining our Indian Empire by our profits 
as wholesale dealers in an article which, to say the 
best of it, is as bad as gin ! The predicament is so 
humiliating, that the reader will be inclined to resent 
having it thrust upon his attention. By whose 
blunder, by what strange combination of afiairs has 
it come to pass that Great Britain has got into this 
miserable position? We find a certain measure 
of relief in casting the responsibility upon the East 
India Company. That Company was at first simply 
a trading association, and it seems not incongruous 
that it shotdd have mixed up government and com- 
merce in this undesirable fashion. 

It is again a relief to learn that the Directors of 
the East India Company did not primarily institute 
the opium monopoly. The historian of British 
India, James Mill, tells us, and we find his state* 
ment confirmed by evidence presented to the House 
of Commons in 1830, that the " Mogul government 
uniformly sold the opium monopoly, and the East 
India Company followed their example." At the 
same time the East India Company inherited from 
the oriental despotism which it overthew another 



THE QUESTION STATED. 6 

monopoly repugnant to our western ideas, that of 
salt. This, however, must be noted to their credit, 
that the directors refused to allow these monopolies 
of opium and salt to be carried to the accounts of 
the shareholders of their stock. From the first, the 
proceeds were carried to the Government account, 
and applied to state purposes. As we shall see when 
we come to treat of their policy, the Committee in 
Leadenhall Street were fully aware of the evil effects 
of opium-eating ; and we may suppose them to have 
continued the customary monopoly as much in order 
to restrict the consumption as to add ff> their 
revenues. But the export to China, which had been 
up to 1767 only some two hundred chests a year, a 
supply which legitimate medical use could account 
for, gradually increased, until the hundreds had 
become thousands, and the thousands tens of 
thousands. The Company sedulously fostered this 
export trade which poured lacs of rupees in a 
steadily increasing stream into their treasury. As 
the revenue derived therefrom swelled in amount, 
the trade became more and more the object of their 
solicitude. Long before the Directors resigned 
their functions to the British Parliament, the 
millions of profits had become indispensable to the 
solvency, and therefore to the stability of their 
Government. Since India came directly under im- 
perial rule the opium revenue, and with it the 
dependence of our Indian Empire upon the profits 
of the trade, have increased to still more formidable 
dimensions. In one year nearly eight millions 



6 BRITISH OPIUM POUCr. 

sterling accrued from opium, about two-thirds of 
whicli consisted of direct profits jfrom the sales of 
the opium produced by Government. During recent 
years between a sixth and a seventh of the annual 
income of our East Indian estate has been derived 
from this source. There is, therefore, no exaggera- 
tion in saying that we are maintaining our splendid 
sovereignty in Asia, and thus the integrity and glory 
of the British Empire, by the profits of our drug- 
selling speculations. Should the trade be suddenly 
closed — a catastrophe by no means beyond the 
range of possibihty — then bankruptcy and ruin 
would stare our Indian Government in the face. 

Whether this dependence upon opium profits is 
politically expedient is a question not unworthy the 
consideration of those who love their country. But 
a much more profound and solemn question is this, 
whether it can be morally justifiable for a nation to 
uphold its* sway by profits derived from the en- 
couragement of the vices of mankind ? We invite 
the reader to a candid consideration of these grave 
questions. We shall state facts and arguments that 
make against the conclusion we have arrived at, as 
well as those preponderating considerations which 
appear to us to estabhsh it, and shall make no 
attempt to locate the criminality of the trade in this 
quarter or that. To anathematize the wickedness of 
corporations and to fiilminate reproaches against the 
dead would be waste of breath. We continue the 
deeds of our fathers, and must bear our own respon- 
sibihty. Nor can we get rid of the burden by shifting 



THE QUESTION STATED. 7 

it on to the shoulderB of the British or the Indian 
Government. The responsibility rests upon the 
whole people. No minister, no Parliament cotdd 
touch a matter so vital to the maintenance of our 
empire without the constraining influence of a 
mighty expression of public opinion to support them. 
Every British citizen therefore, who, directly or in- 
directly, has the smallest share in determining the 
course of the Government of his country, is in that 
measure responsible fOr our opium policy. If we 
in our hearts prefer to let a bad system alone, 
because it would be troublesome and expensive to 
interfere with it; because perchance the wrong 
could not be righted without our having to con- 
tribute an infinitesimal fraction of the cost out of 
our own pocket; then, though we may verbally 
condemn, we in fact endorse the system, and make 
the guilt our own. 

But is there guilt ? Many persons will shrink from 
admitting this. Deriving a revenue in this way has, 
they admit, an ugly look; but they are loth to 
grant that it is necessarily immoral. Do we not in 
England derive an inunense proportion of our 
national revenue from the taxes on intoxicating 
drinks ? Is the consumption of opium any worse 
than that of alcohol ? Is it quite so bad ? What- 
ever makes a deleterious article more costly must so 
far lessen its use, and limit vicious indtdgence. 
These extenuations and defences must receive a 
candid consideration. De Quincey,' — author of the 

' See Note, De Quincej, in Appendix (A). 



8 BRITISH OPIUM POLICY. 

English classic of opium, those " confessions " which 
are not confessions, but an apologia pro vita sudj an 
elaborate essay to whitewash his reputation, and 
varnish over the smirching blot of a self-indulgent 
habit by the glitter of a fascinating literary style, — 
De Quincey boldly anticipates assaults upon his 
beloved narcotic, and tries to forestall adverse judg- 
ments against his lifelong bondage to it, by a 
passage which might be supposed to be expressly 
aimed against the present writer. " I say," he 
writes in his preface, " that opium, or any agent of 
equal power, is entitled to assume that it was 
revealed to man for some higher object than that it 
shotdd furnish a target for moral denunciations, 
ignorant where they are not hypocritical, childish 
where not dishonest ; that it should be set up aa a 
theatrical scarecrow for superstitious terrors, of 
which the result is oftentimes to defraud human 
suffering of its readiest alleviation, and of which the 
purpose is * Ut pueris placeant et declamatio jiant* " 
This quotation he is pleased to translate: "that 
they may win the applause of school-boys and 
furnish matter for a prize essay. ^^ Unmoved by the 
ingenious device of the brilliant opium-eater to 
cast contempt upon our subject, and insinuate 
suspicion of our impartiality, we shall proceed now 
in the next chapter to consider the moral standing 
of the use of opium as a pleasurable stimulant. 
That it was revealed for some higher object than to 
minister to the voluptuous reveries of a De Quincey 
has already been suflSciently estabUshed by the 



THE QUESTION STA11BD. 9 

medical authority of Pareira. Its use by persons in 
health as a means of procuring sensuous gratifica- 
tion, no one " is entitled to assume " to be innocent 
and lawful. Nor on the other hand would it be fair 
to assume a priori that a practice to which some 
millions of our race are addicted is a vice, and a 
worse vice than any we have a leaning to. Let us 
try to weigh it in the scales of justice and truth, and 
decide according to the facts. 



CHAPTER II. 

OPIUM AS A STIMULANT MOEALLI CONSIDEBED. 

The subject of this essay can be discussed without 
requiring writer or reader to commit himself to an 
extreme opinion upon stimulants in general. The 
use of stimulants is well-nigh universal. It wotdd 
be dij05cult to point out the nation or tribe, almost 
the indiyidual, altogether independent of them. As 
tea, coffee, chicory, coca, chocolate, tobacco, betel- 
nut, wine, beer, spirits, haschisch, opium, &c., they 
enter into the daily diet of nearly all mankind. 
Most of these stimulants are liable to serious abuse, 
and hardly the most innocent of them has escaped 
vehement condemnation. Coffee was much opposed 
on its first introduction. The wise and good John 
Wesley earnestly deprecated the practice of drinking 
tea. The blast which King James blew against 
tobacco still has its echoes. Mr. William Hoyle 
tells us, "All the maltsters, brewers, distillers, 
publicans, &c., are persons who are not only unpro- 
ductively, but destructively employed. They take 
the good grain and produce, which a bountiful 
Providence has given us for food, and destroy it by 



OPIUM AS A STIMULANT MOEAIiLY OONSIDEKED. 11 

manufacturing from it a maddening and poisonous 
drink, which is distributed broadcast over the 
country, to the destruction both of the health, 
"morals, and material weal of the people/' Opium 
has been inveighed against as " a vile poison," " an 
infernal drug," which has " annually slain its hun- 
dred thousand victims;" the seller of which is "a 
murderer," and the consumer "a suicide." Our 
inquiry, however, need not be cumbered by irrelevant 
issues. The question before us relates to opium 
alone. We have nothing to do here with tea, to- 
bacco, or alcohol, except as they may be used for 
illustrations. We have to consider whether opium- 
smoking is an innocent enjoyment or a vicious indul- 
gence, and we must rigidly confine ourselves to the 
question before us. In order to discuss it fairly, we 
need to guard ourselves both against the prejudice 
which may unconsciously result from the .similarity 
of this question to other questions about which we 
may already have formed strong opinions, and also 
against the natural tendency of the mind to react 
against excited, perhaps exaggerated, language. 

Now in considering this grave and difficult 
question, we must deal with it as a practical ques- 
tion, to be determined by the facts, so far as they 
are ascertainable. All theories about stimulants 
notwithstanding, the practical sense of mankind has 
already passed different judgments upon particular 
stimulants. The "cup which cheers but not in- 
ebriates " is blessed alike by rich and poor. Tobacco 
has its ardent advocates and its determined foes. 



12 BRITISH OPIUM POLICY. 

When we come to alcohol we are touching one of 
the burning questions of the day. Though the 
Bible can be quoted in praise of the juice of the 
grape, though poets of all nations have sung its' 
joys, though it can plead immemorial antiquity, 
world-wide custom, and an unquestionable moderate 
use in its favour, yet the evils of intemperance 
among our own Anglo-Saxon race are so flagrant, 
that no one with a heart in his breast can fail to be 
staggered by the contemplation of them. Would it 
then, be the right thing to lay alcohol under a ban, 
to set our breweries and distilleries in a blaze, to 
pour the contents of the wine and brandy vaults 
of our docks into the Thames, to prohibit absolutely 
the most innocent use of the intoxicating beverages, 
in order to save our country from the imquestionably 
fearful consequences of their abuse ? There are true 
philanthropists and Christians who shrink from 
such a measure as impracticable, imwise, not the 
true, Divine method of fighting against vice ; but 
while not prepared for such decisive action, they 
will readily acknowledge that the evils produced by 
drink in this Christian England of ours are of such 
appalling magnitude as to give the advocates of total 
suppression a good primd facie case, for an opinion 
which is, if an error, at least an error leaning to 
virtue's side. 

If such be the state of the case as regards alcohol, 
a carefiil perusal of the evidence we are about to 
present in this chapter, and of that in our Appendix 
(A), will convince the impartial reader, that opium 



OPIUM AS A STIMULANT MORALLY CONSIDERED, 13 

cannot pretend to a more favourable judgment than 
alcohol : the only question being whether it must 
not receive a worse condemnation. " Few," to 
quote the^ Quarterly BevieiVy^ " few will be found to 
believe the assertion of the great opium dealers 
Messrs. Jardine, Matheson, and Co., that opium is 
eminently beneficial to the Chinese, and that they 
themselves are, mere commercial considerations 
apart, philanthropic benefactors of the human race." 
It is true that arguments have been adduced in sup- 
port of this amazing assertion : but these arguments 
will avail most where least is known of China and 
the Chinese. These curious arguments are two. 
First, that the universal predilection of the Chinese 
for opium is owing to the malarious character of the 
country. Secondly, that the use of opium is a 
wholesome corrective to the unwholesome, even 
putrid, food which the Chinese consume. The 
reply to the first is that the country over which 
opium is smoked is, in area, about the size of 
Europe, and includes perhaps an equal variety of 
sites, soils, and climates ; great plains level as 
our Fen district, and mountainous regions like the 
highlands of Scotland. " Ague is almost unknown 
in many of the provinces." » Yet everywhere, in all 
climates, on all soils, under every variety of con- 
dition and circumstance throughout that vast empire, 
the Chinese smoke opium. But nowhere do they all 
smoke. The smokers are but a percentage, greater 

* Volume 130, p. 101. 

' Vide Dr. Dudgeon's Peking Hospital Report, 1873, p. 16. 



14 BRITISH OPIUM POLICY. 

or smaller, in any place. If eighty or ninety out of 
a hundred persons enjoy good health in a certain 
district without the use of opium; those who do 
take it cannot expect the necessity of their doing so 
to be taken for granted. The second argument is 
likely to tell among untravelled Englishmen who 
imagine that the celestials dine upon puppy and sup 
upon rat. The Chinese are on the whole clean 
feeders. Their universal food, rice and vegetables, 
fish and pork, is as far as possible from " putrid and 
unwholesome." They will eat some things that we 
will not: for instance, eggs which are decidedly 
rotten. But they strongly object to certain kinds of 
food which delight the European epicure : such as 
high-flavoured game, and cheese with insect life 
visible in it. These are matters of taste ; but the 
assertion that the nature of the Chinese food requires 
opium as a corrective, is as true as the Chinese 
notion that Englishmen cannot digest their food and 
perform natural functions without the regular con- 
sumption of Chinese rhubarb ! Neither of these 
arguments is known to the Chinese as an excuse for 
indulgence in opium : both were invented for their 
effect on this side of the water. Possibly there are 
physiological peculiarities which determine the pre- 
dilection of races for particular stimulants ; but if so, 
these are at present undiscovered. 

Among the testimonies collected in the Appendix 
we especially call attention to the statements of 
Dr. Lockhart, not only because they proceed fi^om a 
medical man, whoso long residence in China, and 



OPIUM AS A STIMULANT MORALLY CONSIDERED. 15 

frequent personal intercourse with opium-smokers, 
and careful study of the subject give him a strong 
claim to most respectful hearing ; but because of the 
evident effort to set aside prejudice, and present 
nothing beyond the plain facts. 

Those who set aside all missionary testimony as 
inevitably coloured by prejudice would do well to 
consider that there is prejudice and prejudice. The 
bias of the missionary who has no object but the 
glory of Gk>d and the salvation of mankind is a very 
different thing from the bias of the merchant who 
every year adds to his profits by the questionable 
traffic. How gladly the missionary would explain away 
the inconsistency between the opium trade and the 
Christian name, if he could I Is it a pleasure to him to 
be compelled to confess before a Chinese crowd, that 
he can make no apology for his countrymen in this 
matter ? There is no one who would be relieved of 
a heavier incubus if this trade could be cleared from 
the stigma attaching to it. Sneers at *' Exeter Hall 
philanthropy " are cheap, and in some quarters tell- 
ing. But the philosophical student of human nature 
will acknowledge that though nearly all men are 
prejudiced in respect to every matter they take deep 
interest in, there are some prejudices which, from 
their very nature, dispose a man to see the truth, 
and others which tend to blind his eyes to the most 
obvious facts. Clarkson and Wilberforce, Lloyd 
Garrison, Wendel Philips, and Mrs. Beecher Stowe, 
were undoubtedly steeped in prejudice up to the 
eyes against slavery, while slave-holding planters 



16 BRITISH OPIUM POLICY. 

were immersed over-head in prejudice in its favour. 
But now that we look back upon the controversy, 
the judgment of mankind hesitates not to say which 
party was right. There is a prejudice the spirit of 
which is, " We can do nothing against the truth, 
but for the truth." We are not carefiil, therefore, 
to clear missionaries from all imputation of pre- 
judice. Let the reader weigh their evidence as 
scrutinizingly as he pleases. In matters of opinion 
he may find it necessary to allow some deduction on 
this account. In matters of fact we are persuaded 
that their testimony will abide scrutiny. 

That, on the most lenient view, the consumption of 
opium produces physical and moral evils, fully com- 
mensurate with those produced by intoxicating 
drinks, is a proposition which can be established 
apart from missionary testimony. Pareira, in " Ma- 
teria Medica," and Dr. Anstie, author of a standard 
work on Stimulants, are decisive upon this point. 
Drs. Batwell and Impey, opium examiners under 
the Bengal Government, venture no more in defence 
of the manufacture, than to suggest that the use of 
opium is not a more serious evil than the use of 
alcohol amongst ourselves. Mr. Cooper, the traveller 
— extracts from whose evidence will be found in the 
Appendix — uses stronger language as to the terrible 
results of opium smoking to China generally, than I 
have found in the writings of any missionary. A 
quotation here of a witness, whose high position and 
intimate connexion with the subject combine to 
render his testimony of prime importance, and who 



OPIUM AS A STIMULANT MORALLY CONSIDEEED. 17 

is free from suspicion of any leaning to the mis- 
sionary side, ought to be sufficient alone to set this 
question at rest. Sir Rutherford Alcock, K.C.B., 
her Majesty's Minister in China, examined before 
the Committee of the House of Commons, June 6, 
1871, gave his evidence thus:' — 

**5738, *Can the evils, physical, moral, com- 
mercial, and political, as respects individuals, 
families, and the nation at large, of indulgence 
in this vice be exaggerated?' — (Sir R. Alcock.) 
*I have no doubt that, where there is a great 
amount of evil, there is, always a certain danger 
of exaggeration; but looking to the universality 
of the belief among the Chinese, that whenever 
a man takes to smoking opium, it will probably 
be the impoverishment and ruin of his £a.mily — a 
popular feeling which is universal both amongst 
those who are addicted to it, who always consider 
themselves as moral criminals, and amongst those 
who abstain fix)m it, and are merely endeavour- 
ing to prevent its consumption — ^it is difficult not 
to conclude that what we hear of it is essentially 
true, and that it is a source of impoverishment and 
ruin to famiKes.' " 

The evident care employed ' here to express as 
moderate an opinion as possible should give these 
sentences great weight. Note particularly the 
important statement about the "universal belief of 
the Chinese." To the testimony of our late repre- 

' Vide Report, East India Finance, 1871. (363.) Page 275. 





18 BRITISH OPIUM POLICY. 

sentatiye at the Court of Peking we can add that of 
Sir Thomas Wade, who now occupies that important 
post. He says/— 

" I cannot endorse the opinion of Messrs. Jardine, 
Matheson, and Co., that ^ the use of opium is not a 
curse, but a comfort and a benefit, to the hard- 
working Chinese.' As in all cases of sweeping 
criticism, those who condemn the opium trade may 
have been guilty of exaggeration. They have been 
especially mistaken in representing the British 
Government and people as responsible for the intro- 
duction of opium to the knowledge of the Chinese ; 
the Chinese knew it long before we brought them 
opium from India. But it is impossible to deny 
that we bring them that quality which — in the south, 
at all events — tempts them the most, and for which 
they pay dearest. It is to me vain to think other- 
wise of the use of the drug in China than as of a 
habit many times more pernicious, nationally speak- 
ing, than the gin and whiskey drinking which we 
deplore at home. It takes possession more insi- 
diously, and keeps its hold to the full as tenaciously. 
I know no case of radical cure. It has insured, in 
every case within my knowledge, the steady descent, 
moral and physical, of the smoker, and it is, so far, 
a greater mischief than drink, that it does not, by 
external evidence of its effect, expose its victim to 
the loss of repute which is the penalty of habitual 
drunkenness. There is reason to fear that a higher 

* China. No. 5, (1871). Correspondence respecting the Re- 
vision of the Treaty of Tientsin, page 432. 



OPIUM AS A STIMULANT MORALLY CONSIDERED. 19 

class than used to smoke in Commissioner Lin's day 
are now taking to the practice/* 

For Chinese testimony we cannot quote more 
satisfactory evidence than that of the Mandarin 
Heu Naetse, who in 1836 memorialized the Emperor 
Taou Kwang to legalize the importation of opium, 
and therefore is not to be suspected of going out of 
his way to magnify its evils : * — 

"I would humbly represent that opium was 
originally ranked among medicines ; its qualities are 
stimulant; it also checks excessive secretions, and 
prevents the evil effects of noxious vapours. In the 
•Materia Medica' of Le Shechin of the Ming 
dynasty it is called Afoo-yung. When any one is 
long habituated to inhaling it, it becomes necessary 
to resort to it at regular intervals, and the habit of 
using it, being inveterate, is destructive of time, 
injurious to property, and yet dear to one even as 
life. Of those who use it to great excess the breath 
becomes feeble, the body wasted, the face sallow, 
the teeth black ; the individuals themselves clearly 
see the evil effects of it, yet cannot refrain from it. 

It will be found, on examination, 

that the smokers of opium are idle, lazy vagrants, 
having no useful purpose before them, and are 
unworthy of regard, or even contempt." 

Not only a long series of oflBcial documents, of 
which the above is a specimen, but numerous 
pamphlets, ballads, pictures, and illustrated sheets, 
proclaim the Chinese popular conviction that opium 

* Correspondence relating to China, 1840, page 156. 

2 



20 BRITISH OPIUM POLICY. 

is a terrible curse to their land. An old Chinese 
scholar thus summarized the evils of opium: — 
"1st. It destroys and shortens life ; 2nd, it imfits 
for the discharge of all duties ; 3rd, it squanders 
substance, houses, lands, money, and sometimes, it 
is reported, wives and children are sold to obtain it; 
and 4th, it injures population. The children of 
confirmed opium-smokers are said to be childless in 
the third generation. More than half of such 
smokers are themselves childless, and the other half 
have fewer children than those of other countries, 
and their offspring seldom live to become old 



men." 



As abundant evidence of Chinese antagonism to 
opium will be found in subsequent chapters, let us 
now turn to other countries, and see what reputation 
the drug has acquired for itself there. 

In the Report of the Select Committee already 
adduced, we have the evidence of Sir Cecil Beadon, 
Lieutenant-Governor of Bengal, respecting Assam : — 

" 3523. *Now I will ask you just to turn your eye 
in the direction of Assam. Is it not the fact that the 
population of Assam is almost entirely demoralized 
by the quantity of opium which is produced and 
used there?' — (Sir C. Beadon.) *It was.' 

^'3524. 'There has been a change lately, has 
there?' — 'Some ten years ago the Government 
prohibited the manufacture of opium in Assam ; up 
to that time it had been free.' 

" 3525. * And during that time the population was 
immensely demoralized ? ' — * Very much demoralized. 



OPIUM AS A STIMULANT MORALLY CONSIDERED. 21 

The reason that was assigned for it was, that it was 
eaten by the women and children ; the children from 
their earliest years wore accustomed to suck rags 
saturated with opium/ " 

This evidence of Sir C. Beadon is illustrated by 
the following extract from Mr. Bruce's tea report, 
date 1839 :— 

" This vile drug has kept, and does now keep, 
down the population; the women have fewer 
children compared with those of other countries, 
and these children seldom live to be old men, but in 
general die at manhood — very few old men being 
seen in this country in comparison with others. 
Few but those who have resided long in this 
unhappy land know the dreadful and immoral 
effects which the use of opium produces on the 
native. He will steal, sell his property, his children, 
the mother of his children, and finally commit 
murder to obtain it." 

Passing from Assam to Burma, the same Parlia- 
mentary Beport gives us, in the words of Dr. George 
Smith, a fearful account of the ravages of the opium 
vice in British territory :— 

'* 5097. * Does the Excise department promote the 
consumption of opium in India as zealously as that of 
alcohol ? ' — * In the Indo-Chinese districts of British 
Burma, the action of the departments in promoting 
the sale of opium has long been a public scandal. 
The evil has been officially reported to the Govern- 
ment of India by the late Chief Commissioner, Sir 
Arthur Phayre; and in a published official report 



22 BRITISH OPIUM POLICY. 

by Mr. Wheeler, Secretary to the present Chief 
Commissioner, the evil is again described for the 
information of Government in the following lan- 
guage : — " Mr. Hind, Assistant Commissioner, came 
on board. This gentleman appears to have a large 
local experience of Aracan, dating back from 1835. 
The principal object of his conversation was to 
impress me with the demoralizing effects of the 
Bengal akbari laws upon the impulsive, pleasure- 
loving people of Burma ; and certainly he furnished 
sufficient data to prove the utter fallacy of the 
general conclusion, that what is good for India is 
good for Burma. Prior to the introduction of 
British rule into Aracan, the punishment for using 
opium was death. The people were hard-working, 
sober, and simple-minded. Unfortunately, one of 
the earliest measures of our administration was the 
introduction of the akbari rules by the Bengal Board 
of Bicvenue. Mr. Hind, who had passed the greater 
part of his long life amongst the people of Aracan, 
described the progress of demoralization. Organized 
efforts were made by Bengal agents to introduce the 
use of the drug, and to create a taste for it amongst 
the rising generation. The general plan was to 
open a shop with a few cakes of opium, and to invite 
the young men and distribute it gratuitously. Then, 
when the taste was estabHshed, the opium was sold 
at a low rate. Finally, as it spread throughout the 
neighbourhood, the price was raised, and large 
profits ensued. Sir Arthur Phayre's account of the 
demoralization of Aracan by the Bengal akb&ri rules 



OPIUM AS A STIMULANT MOBALLY GONSIDEBED. 23 

is very graphic; but Mr. Hind's statements were 
more striking, as lie entered more into detail. He 
saw a fine healthy generation of strong men suc- 
ceeded by a rising generation of haggard opium- 
smokers and eaters, who indulged to such an extent 
that their mental and physical powers were alike 
waited. Then followed a fearful increase in gam- 
bhng and dacoity.'* * " ^ 

As in Assam and Burmah, so in China, opium is 
accused of ruining the moral character of its votaries. 
The Rev. Griffith John writes : — 

" The moral efiects of opium-smoking are of the 
most pernicious kind. It seems to paralyze the 
moral nature. It bedims the moral vision, blunts 
the moral instiiicts, and extinguishes every virtue. 
Strong drink may upset the balance of the mind for 
the time, but opium seems to absorb all its virtues, 
and leave it a dead, emotionless thing. The Chinese 
say that an. opium-smoker is always devising some 
mischief, and that not the slightest confidence can 
be safely reposed in him. Whilst in affluent circum- 
stances, the danger is not so great ; but the moment 
penury sets in, he becomes an object of suspicion 
and aversion to all around him. There is nothing 
too mean or too corrupt for him to attempt in order 
to allay the insufiferable craving for the drug. He 
will ruin his parents, and even sell his wife and 
children to procure the necessary supply.'* ' 

After reading this combination of testimony, few 

* Report, East India Finance, 1871, page 235. 
' Nonconformiatf 1870. 



24 BEITISH OPIUM POLICY, 

will dispute that opium must be reckoned as at least 
on a par with alcohol as to its evil influence on 
health, wealth, and morals. We have no data to 
enable us to make a statistical comparison of the 
efEects of the two stimulants. Ehetoric might have 
put down the deaths from opium in China at half a 
million instead of one hundred thousand, and yet fall 
short of the death-rate ascribed to drink in tHs 
country. And the money value of all the opium 
consumed in China in twelve months perhaps would 
not exceed one-fifth of the 131,601,490Z. which, 
according to Mr. Hoyle, was expended upon intoxi- 
cating liquors in the United Kingdom during the 
year 1872. But then it must be remembered that 
China is a very poor country compared with Great 
Britain, and also that opium-smoking is quite a new 
vice in the Middle Kingdom. It dates, in any 
serious dimensions, no farther back than the present 
century. Give it time, and it bids fair to outdo 
alcohol in the race of destruction, and carry ofi* the 
palm as most fatal of all the stimulants to the weal 
of the human race. 

'* But these lamentable consequences result from 
the aimse of opium and alcohol, not from their 
moderate use. ' ' Undoubtedly. We cordially concede 
to the opium merchant, and the defender of the East 
India monopoly, that it must be the abiise of the good 
gifts of God which turns them into awM plagues. 
This brings us to the inquiry whether or not the use 
of opium as an article of luxury and enjoyment is not 
much less defensible than is the use of alcohol. Is 



OPIUM AS A STIMULANT MORALLY CONSIDEEBD. 25 

there any "moderate'* opium-smoking or opium- 
eating at all analogous to the moderate use of 
wines, beer, and spirits? This is a question difficult 
to answer, important as it is in this controversy. 
Assertion can be pitted against assertion. The Rey. 
Griffith John says : — " I would observe that it is a 
great mistake to refer opium to the same category as 
tobacco and spirits. On this point there is a won- 
derftil unanimity of opinion among those who are 
capable of forming an opinion on the matter. 
Tobacco, beer, and wine, may be taken in moderation, 
and are generally believed to be harmless, if so used ; 
but even the moderate use of opium is baneful, and, 
what is worse, it is impossible to take it in modera- 
tion. The smoker is never satisfied with less than 
the intoxicating effects of the drug. He smokes 
with the view of making himself drunk, and his 
cravings are never appeased until he gets drunk. If 
time and means permit, he lives in a state of ecstatic 
trance or intoxication, from which he desires never 
to be waked up. Opium-smoking cannot be com- 
pared with moderate drinking, but with drunken- 
ness itself. The habit is more insidious in its 
approach than that of drinking, and holds its victim 
with a far more tenacious grasp. " For the sake of 
a speedy end to the controversy, we could wish that 
we had found that " wonderful unanimity " of opinion 
which Mr. John encountered. If this point were 
once plainly established, that there is, there can be, 
no moderate opium-smoking, there would be an end 

of all debate. The dealers in opium, the upholders 



26 BRITISH OPIUM POLICY. 

of the monopoly, would simply be aiders and abet- 
tors of self-murder. British merchants, and the 
British Government itself, could not escape the 
charge of wholesale poisoning on a gigantic scale. 
The vast scale of the opium-poisoning operations, 
involving the death of unknown numbers of Chinese, 
the enrichment of merchant princes, the maintenance 
of one of the largest Empires of the world, and the 
slow ruin of another Empire still larger, would not 
elevate the opium trade beyond the reach of the 
fatal accusation that it is making gain out of the 
very life-blood of mankind. But it would be pre- 
mature to press this charge, because all defenders 
of the traffic assert that opium may be used in 
moderation, and that, thus used, it is no more in- 
jurious than ardent spirits. Mr. Winchester, for- 
merly H.M. Consul at Shanghae, is an instance to 
our hand. We quote again from the Parliamentary 
Report : — 

"5935. *I think you said that you were a medical 
man?' — (Mr. Winchester.) * I studied medicine, but 
I have not been practising.' 

" 5936. * Would you recommend persons who lived 
in close rooms, without much air, to smoke opium ?' — 
* I believe that I would not recommend any man to 
smoke opium under any circumstances.' 

" 5937. Mr. R. Fowler : * You have had experience 
of the effects of opium on the Chinese who take it, 
I presume ? ' — * I have observed the effects ; I have 
never smoked it myself.' 

" 5938. * But it would be your opinion that it has a 



OPIUM AS A STIMULANT MORALLY CONSIDERED. 27 

very prejudicial effect on the health of the people ?* — 
* On the whole, I should say yes. But there are two 
conditions of opium- smoking ; tjiere is what you 
might call the moderate opium-smoking, and there 
is that stage which I would call op-iamisnmSj as being 
equivalent to what may be called alcoholismus* I think 
you must view these two conditions as entirely 
separate in considering the effect of opium upon 
individuals.' 

"5939. * Sir Rutherford Alcock expressed a doubt 
whether people ever remained moderate smokers. 
What would be your opinion on that point?' — *My 
opinion is' rather more in favour of the opinion that 
they do; and it is derived from my observations 
upon the general activity and energy of the Chinese, 
both in the neighbourhood of the ports, and in the 
straits, and in California, from their being, on the 
whole, a useful people, and a laborious, diligent popu- 
lation.' 

" 5940. * Then it is your opinion that a man may 
continue to use opium as we use wine and the lower 
classes use beer in this country, without ever being 
inclined to use it to excess ? ' — * Yes, I feel sure of it. 
I have known men who told me that they had 
smoked opium all their hves, and who were perfectly 
competent to the duties of their position.' 

" 5941. * And who were elderly people ?' — 'People 
of forty or fifty.' 

" 5942. * Any of seventy or eighty?' — * Men of the 
usual ages in private life.' " 

The last is an amusingly ambiguous answer. Nor 



28 BRITISH OPIUM POLICY. 

will the argument founded on the generality of the 
Chinese being laborious and diligent count for much. 
If opium-smoking were the rule among them, and 
non- smoking the exception as teetotalism in England, 
it would hold good : but this is far from a correct 
representation of the case. But Mr. Winchester's 
assertion, that " opium has a beneficial use and an 
injurious use," may be set-oS against Mr. Griffith 
John's. Dr. Eatwell, who passed three years in 
China, upholds the same view as Consul Winchester: 
and, in general, all apologists for the traffic assert 
that opium may be used in moderation, and, so used, 
is no more injurious than alcohol ; while all assailants 
of the traffic support, more or less categorically, the 
opposite view. What shall we make of this con- 
flicting evidence ? When, in the famous Tichbome 
trial, hundreds of witnesses had sworn that the 
Claimant was Sir B. Tichborne, and their oaths had 
been neutralized by those of other hundreds who 
swore that he was not, the Lord Chief Justice com- 
menced his Bumming-up by intimating that in his 
opinion these opposing testimonies proved that the 
defendant was, if not Sir Roger, at least, in personal 
appearance, something like the Baronet. I think a 
&ir summing-up of the evidence in our present con- 
troversy will necessitate a verdict that the use of 
opium as a stimulant is something like that of alcohol, 
if not identical with it. I think we cannot deny 
that some opium-smokers are *^ moderate ^^for a time: 
that, while they are moderate, their indulgence does 
them no visible harm, and that in some cases they are 



OPIUM AS A STIMULANT MOfiALLT CONSIDERED. 29 

able to keep to tliis moderation even to old age. So 
much the evidence in favour of opium seems to 
require. But as the judge found the defendant to 
be Orton and not Tichbome, despite of the resem- 
blances, so, in the end, it may be found that opium 
is not as alcohol, although there is a measure of 
resemblance between the two. I say " it may be 
found in the end," because I believe that the matter 
must at present be regarded as sub jvdice. We have 
no reliable statistics as to the number of opium- 
smokers in China. We have no statistics at all as 
to the amount smoked by each, and the average 
length of life of smokers. In the meantime, all one 
can do is to estimate with care that amount of evi« 
dence we have, and form an interim opinion. For 
my own part, before looking closely at the case, I 
inclined rather to the view that there is a moderate 
use of opium — and for this reason : it appeared to 
me that, if the habit of opium-smoking were certainly, 
or well-nigh certainly, fatal within a few years to all 
smokers, then the practice could not maintain itself 
and spread. In spite of an absurd delusion to the 
contrary met with in England, the Chinese value 
their lives quite as much as we do. Human nature 
is pretty much the same all the world over. Men 
will run a certain amount of danger in the practice 
of pleasant vices, but they would not long continue 
to indulge these vices if the punishment were in all 
cases certain and never long delayed. If there were 
no moderate drinking, there would be no drunken- 
ness, the teetotallers say; and they are right. If 



30 BRITISH OPIUM -POLICY. 

sexual indulgence were sure to bring painful 
disease and an early grave, few would have the 
hardihodd to gratify their propensities at such an 
expense. Reasoning in a similar way, it seemed to 
me that if every smoker of opium passed, by a swift 
and inevitable process, from pleasant dallying with 
the pipe to a state of chronic disease and torture, 
ending in a premature death, the vice of opium- 
smoking would soon cure itself. It would hardly 
require a second generation of victims to warn all 
society against the fatal indulgence. 

This reasoning is, I think, valid, and it is corro- 
borated by the evidence of Consul Winchester and 
others. We can hardly doubt that there are some 
Chinese to whom the opium-pipe is no more harmful 
than the moderate use of wine and spirits is to many 
persons in Europe. But we must be on our guard 
against hasty analogies. I have already repudiated 
the notion that stimulants can be reasoned upon as a 
class. Their action is very imperfectly understood 
as yet, according to the acknowledgment of one of 
the latest medical authorities. Dr. Anstie assures 
us that instances of indulgence in tea and coffee to 
an injurious extent are by no means so rare as some 
persons imagine. Yet neither he nor any one else 
would for a moment dream of comparing the eflPects 
of tea and coflPee with those of beer and gin. Every 
stimulant must be examined by itself, and sentence 
passed upon it according to its own merits. Now 
as regards alcohol, the moderate use of it is well 
known. In the case of opium, the moderate use is 



OPIUM AS A STIMULANT MORALLY CONSIDEHKD. 31 

little better than hypothetical. In England there 
are, perhaps, ninety-nine moderate drinkers for every 
drunkard. In China there is no class of moderate 
opium-smokers which can be appealed to, who openly 
avow and defend their practice. Individuals there 
may be, like those Mr. Winchester adduces, but they 
are few and far between. The evidence goes to 
show, and the essayist's own personal knowledge 
confirms it, that the Chinese regard opium-smoking 
BB a vice, and a pre-eminently seductive and dan- 
gerous vice. If all the opium imported into China and 
grown in the country were equally consumed by the 
whole population, the amount falling to each smoker 
would be so small as to be innocuous. But, on the 
other hand, if all the smokers consumed as much as 
one Chinese ounce per day, they would all be opium- 
slaves. We do not know the exact number of' 
smokers who divide the total amount of the drug 
between them ; but the evidence before us certainly 
tends to lead to the opinion that the smokers are 
comparatively few in number to the whole popu- 
lation, and that the majority, or at least a very large 
proportion of them, are immoderate in their con- 
sumption. Without exact computation our con- 
clusion must necessarily be conjectural. But there 
are certain evident considerations which ought not 
to be overlooked. 

(1) Multitudes partake of wine, beer, and spirits, 
as regularly as they do of beef and mutton. These 
beverages are a part of daily food. The use of them 
is genera], open, and reputable. It is not so with 



32 BRITISH OPIUM POLICY. 

opium-smoking. The opium pipe is not regarded 
as forming a part of regular diet. Smokers and 
non-smokers agree in regarding it as a vicious 
indulgence; as a consequence, smokers almost 
invariably hide their addiction to the pipe, if pos- 
sible. I have caught a man smoking who had only 
half an hour before denied to me that he was a 
smoker, and condemned the habit. Opium-smoking 
is classed by the universal popular opinion of China 
with gambUng and debauchery. There is no reason 
why this should be so, except the practical expe- 
rience the Chinese have had of its fearful conse- 
quences. A special pleader might argue that opium- 
smoking is regarded as a vice, because the Chinese 
Government made it a crime. I unhesitatingly 
believe that the Chinese Government made it a crime 
because it was unmistakeably a ruinous vice. We* 
shall hear more about this in the chapter on the 
Chinese history of opium, to which I refer the 
reader. There may be moderate smokers, but this 
state of things points to an immense prevalence of 
immoderate smoking. 

(2) The mass of evidence, Chinese and foreign, 
points to a fascinating, enthralhng power in opium, 
which renders it more enslaving than alcohol. 
It is well known that alcohol by no means neces- 
sarily imposes any constant increase upon those who 
use it. A man may drink his quantum at seventy 
years of age and be perfectly satisfied therewith, 
although it is exactly what he used to take at twenty 
years of age. But if the reader carefully weighs the 



OPIUM AS A STIMULANT MOEALLY CONSIDERED. 33 

evidence about opium he will hardly avoid con- 
cluding that, very generally if not always, the use 
of this stimulant imposes the necessity of continual 
increase. If the smoker could always keep to 
what sufficed him during the first year or two 
it might be as innocent a stimulant as tobacco. 
But he cannot. There is a fatal charm about 
the drug — he must go on to more and more. 
English readers are familiar with this quality of 
opium from De Quincey's fascinating but horrible 
narration. The experience of the Chinese tallies 
with that of the brilliant English writer, except that 
he by almost superhuman efforts broke off the habit, 
while in China this is so rare as to be regarded as 
impossible. 

(3) Even between drunkenness and opium-smoking 
there are perceptible distinctions. We must allow 
that opium-smoking is a much more pacific and 
poUte vice. The opium sot does not quarrel with 
his mate, nor kick his wife to death. He is quiet 
and harmless enough while the spirit of the drug 
possesses him. But against this one must set off 
the more terrible slavery in which the opium-smoker 
is held fast. Many drunkards only give way to their 
propensity by fits and starts. Others are drunk 
perhaps regularly once a week, when pay-day puts 
them in fimds. But the victim of opium mutst have 
his allowance every day. There is no pause, no 
intermission for him. 

(4) This brings us to the difficulty of giving up 
the two vices. It may be nearly impossible to break 

D 



34 BRITISH OPIUM roucY. 

off drinking habits. It is quite impossible to give 
up opium once a certain stage has passed. The 
drunkard may have to pass through a terrible 
struggle for recovery. The confirmed opium-smoker 
gives up his pipe only to die. There is universal 
unanimity of evidence upon this point, that after the 
smoker has gone on for a certain time, and got to 
use daily a certain amount, it is physically impossible 
for him, without the help of medicines, to pause in 
his career and retrace his steps. 

It avails little, therefore, to argue that there may 
be, that there actually is, a moderate use of opium, 
just as there is of alcohol. Each must be studied 
by itself, and verdict pronounced according to the 
facts. We do know there is a moderate use of 
alcohol, so extensive that even the great prevalence 
of intemperance in our land does not generally con- 
vince men that they ought to banish alcohol from 
society altogether. We do not know that there is 
any such use of opium. Some moderate smoking 
no doubt there must be. But the question is what 
is its amount compared with the whole amount of 
smoking. We have no figures to go upon. The 
evidence we have is vague and indefinite. Who then 
shall decide ? Surely none ought to know, none can 
know, so well as the Chinese people themselves. 
And what do they say ? From the Emperor through 
all grades of society down to the lowest classes, one 
and all, without dissentient voice, they condemn the 
practice as fatally insidious and destructive. They 
are well acquainted with other stimulants. Tea, 



-V' 



OPIUM AS A STIMULANT MORALLY CONSIDERED. 35 

tobacco, betel-nut, spirits, they are familiar with 
them all. Drunkenness is known and condemned 
as a vice among them as among us, though it is not 
so prevalent there. But for opium alone they 
reserve a condemnation altogether unanimous, alto- 
gether unparalleled. 

In Appendix (B) such information about the pro- 
bable amount of opium smoked by the Chinese as we 
have been able to obtain is recorded. But the 
absence of any accurate estimate of the amount of 
poppy cuWvaL within the eighteen provinces of 
China renders the best attempts at calculation un- 
satisfactory. Even if we possessed returns of the 
whole quantity of opium annually consumed in 
China, that alone would shed no light upon the 
moral aspects of the question ; for it is not the total 
amount, but its distribution, which would determine 
the matter. The same quantity which would be 
harmless if divided equally among sixty millions, 
would be ruin of body and soul if consumed by two 
or three millions. The estimates by such authorities 
as Sir B. Alcock and Dr. Lockhart indicate three 
or four millions of smokers. Mr. Cooper and Dr. 
Dudgeon vastly increase the number. The discre- 
pancy may be perhaps explained by supposing that 
the larger number includes all those who at one time 
or another take an occasional pipe, but never use the 
drug regularly. In this, however, there is a general 
consensus of testimony that the habit once formed 
can hardly ever be renounced, and that in the 
majority of cases it compels its votaries to increase 

D 2 



36 BRITISH OPIUM rOLlCY. 

their dose, until it reaches a highly-injurious 
quantity. 

Statistics fail us, but this we know, that the mis- 
sionary hospitals from Peking to Canton are every- 
where visited by large numbers of opium victims 
praying for aid to release them from bondage to the 
pipe; that everywhere travellers receive numerous 
applications for " anti-opium pills " for the same 
purpose ; that opium beggars are frequent spectacles 
in all large places ; and deaths of impoverished 
smokers occur, in what numbers we know not, but 
certainly they are anything but rare. For all this 
we cannot justly say that it is proved that opium as 
a stimulant is essentially worse than alcohol ; but 
we can most assuredly say that the assertion that 
the two stand morally on exactly the same footing 
is also not proved ; that, on the contrary, very grave 
doubt is cast upon it ; that the evidence points to a 
peculiarly enthralling power in opium, which marks 
it a more dangerous stimulant than alcohol. Opium 
lacks any clear, positive evidence of a generally- 
diffused moderate use. In fine. Sir Eutherford 
Aloock has very fairly represented the general 
opinion of foreign observers in China; and the 
natives would corroborate his view in stronger 
terms. To quote the Report once more : — 

" 5756. You say, if I rightly understand you, 
that you never in China met with a moderate opium- 
smoker, that is to say, one who you think would not 
have been better without even the amount that he 
did consume ? — As a rule, that may be so ; but for 



OPIUM AS A STIMULANT MORALLY CONSIDERED. 37 

instance, all our domestic servants smoke, and 
they do not smoke in excess, or we should not kee^ 
them. 

" S757. What do you mean by excess ? — To such 
a degree that if deprived of their opium, or delayed, 
they would collapse like the prisoner I have men- 
tioned. 

'' 5758. But they all go on steadily to that stage, 
as I gather from you ? — That is my impression ; I 
am obliged to speak vaguely, however, because we 
have not the data or statistics on which we could 
dogmatize at all about it." 

This then is the conclusion of one who has had very 
great opportunities for forming an opinion, and whose 
position and responsibilities could not but incline 
him to judge as leniently as possible of the practice. 
Sir B. Alcock thinks that moderate opium-smoking 
lasts only for a time, and that *^ they all go steatiily 
on " to that stage which is self-destructive. If this 
be the fact, it will harmonize the conflicting evidence. 

Travellers like the botanist Mr. Fortune testify 
that they have seen opium-smokers who seemed no 
whit the worse for the practice. Missionaries and 
others say the habit is enslaving, and ruins its vic- 
tims. Mr. Fortune might possibly have come round 
to this latter opinion, had he again seen those very 
persons he describes after they had used the opium- 
pipe for ten years longer. Even, however, if we 
admit that some proportion of the smokers are able 
to preserve their moderation to the last, it is im- 
portant to notice that the impressdon of the Chinese 



38 BBITISH OHTJM POLICY. 

Oovemmentj and of the Chinese people^ is altogether 
opposed to that of those who class opium among 
harmless or only occasionally harmful stimulants. 

Where we cannot procure the scientific evidence 
of carefully-collected statistics, the evidence of 
national opinion^ not that of governments only, but 
popular opinion, must be received as of great weight. 
It is the result of a general experience much wider 
than that which is at the foundation of the indi- 
vidual opinions of this or that traveller or resident. 
It is, therefore, most noteworthy that China, Siam, 
Burma, and Japan have all distinctly declared 
against opium. In 1839, if not before, opium was 
absolutely prohibited in Siam by royal edict.' Our 
first treaty with Japan contained a clause expressly 
excluding opium, and the newspapers tell us that 
within the last few months the Japanese officials 
have been enforcing their laws against the Chinese 
smokers, on account of their great dread lest the 
practice should establish itself among them. The 
long-sustained and intense opposition of the Chinese 
to opium will have to be separately treated of. 

In conclusion, we cannot say that it is absolutely 
proved that opium-smoking is a more pernicious 
habit than dram-drinking; but there is reason to 
think that the drug exercises a peculiar enslaving 
power, which renders it more universally fatal to its 
votaries. For the purposes of this essay, however, 
it is not necessary to bring absolute proof that 
opium is always pernicious. It is enough that the 

• " China Repository," vol. viii. p. 125. 



OPIUM AS A STIMULAMT MORALLY CONSIDERED. 39 

Chinese, who know a great deal more about it than 
we can know, are, one may say, unanimously agreed 
in regarding it as a fearful curse to their land. 
"British Opium Policy*' has to do with a system 
by which we are the producers of the drug, the 
Chinese the users of it. It is for them to say 
whether they think it a harmless luxury or a 
national poison. Hesitation of judgment, contra- 
riety of opinion, may characterize the testimonies of 
English witnesses, but nothing of the kind can be 
observed in China; those persons who are the 
actual slaves of the opium-pipe being the loudest in 
its condemnation. Granting, then, that we are 
doubtful about the exact measure of its evils, 
nothing can justify us for forcing it upon an un- 
willing people. 



CHAPTER III. 

THE BAST INDIA COMPANY'S OPIUM POLICY. 

The East India Company's opium policy may be 
expressed in two words, repression and revenue : 
at home repression, revenue from abroad. The 
Directors of that Company, being sovereign 
masters of a hundred millions of their fellow-crea- 
tures, were by no means careless of the physical 
and moral welfare of their subjects. Unhappily 
their sense of responsibility found its limit here, 
and no qualms of conscience interfered to prevent 
their pandering to the vicious tastes of a distant 
population beyond the seas. 

No decent government can welcome the replenish- 
ing of its finances by the vices of mankind. Were 
governments unscrupulous, the moral sense of the 
masses would compel them to profess to deplore the 
fruitfulness of such sources of revenue. Never- 
theless, it so happens, as matter of fact, that 
governments do continually receive large revenues? 
from the vicious excesses of their citizens. In our 
own country the taxes upon strong drink bring in 
over thirty milhons a year, a large proportion of 



THE EAST INDIA COMPANY'S OPIUM POLICY. 41 

which is contributed by drunkenness. As this fact 
is pleaded in defence of our opium revenue, it may 
be well to consider the principles which ought to 
determine government action in such cases. 

All luxuries obviously are exposed to taxation 
in preference to necessaries. It is better to tax tea 
than bread ; better to tax spirits than tea. When 
the article of luxury is frequently injurious to its 
consumers, and its consumption cannot be pre- 
vented, it is thereby plainly marked out for taxation, 
because taxation checks consumption by making 
the article more expensive. On this ground opium 
presents itself as a positive claimant for taxation, and 
every argument for taxes upon alcohol supports the 
justice of deriving revenue from the . poppy. If 
absolute prohibition of the use of opium be assumed 
to be impossible, or beyond the proper functions of 
Government, then the institution of a tax upon it 
becomes positively commendable. But here we 
must lay down another principle which inheres 
in all wise policy in respect to such taxation. 
The Government only accepts revenue from this 
source under the compulsion of circumstances, 
admitting it in order to diminish evils which Govern- 
ment cannot altogether prevent. Statesmen of all 
parties would abhor the suggestion that they should 
encourage drunkenness in order to swell a surplus. 
Even that consumption of intoxicating drinks which 
can only be characterized as improvident is not 
atoned for because it contributes largely to the 
revenue. This terrible waste of national resources 



42 BEITISH OPIUM POLIOr. 

" kills the goose which lays the golden eggs," 
cripples the power of the people to support the 
demands which Government must make upon them. 
We may lay it down as a guiding principle that 
taxation of articles hable to abuse, such as alcohol 
and opium, can only be justified because of its effect 
in restricting their consumption. The acquisition 
of revenue must not be the primary object. 

The East India Company's Directors proved 
both by professions and acts that, so far as their 
own subjects were concerned, they were animated by 
wise and benevolent views. From an early date they 
distinctly deprecated the consumption of opium by 
Hindoos, and aimed at its repression. Mr. 0. W. Bell, 
of the Revenue Department of Bombay, said to the 
Committee of the House of Commons : * " I find it 
frequently stated in the Government records, that 
they endeavour not so much to look for dn increase 
of revenue as for a diminution of the consumption 
of spirits and the prevention of drunkenness." In 
respect to opium, this honourable policy is attested 
by Mr. H. St. Greorge Tucker, the eminent finance 
minister, who wrote in 1829 : " It is scarcely 
necessary for me to speak of the policy which had 
been pursued by the East India Company, sys- 
tematically for a long course of years, with relation 
to the monopoly of opium in Bengal. The leading 
feature of that policy was, to limit the manufacture 
to a moderate quantity, seldom exceeding 4500 chests 
— to confine the cultivation of the poppy to those 

> Report, East India Finance, 1871, p. 206. 



THB BAST INDIA COMPANY'S OPIUM POLICY. 43 

districts in which the drug could be produced of the 
best quality and at the lowest cost — ^and to prevent 
as far as possible the sale and use of it in our terri- 
tory, except for medicinal purposes. In prosecuting 
this policy we went so far as to prohibit the culti- 
vation of the poppy in the districts of Bangulpore 
and Rungpore, where it had long been grown ex- 
tensively, and where the produce had been hereto- 
fore appropriated to the purposes of the monopoly ; 
and at a period not very remote, on information 
being obtained that the cultivation in Rungpore had 
been clandestinely renewed, the Government did not 
hesitate to order the plant to be eradicated, in the 
most peremptory and arbitrary maimer. In short 
the very essence of all our arrangements had been to 
draw the largest revenue from the smallest quantity 
of the article." ' To this unexceptionable testimony 
we can add the explicit avowal of the Court of 
Directors. In their despatch to the Governor in 
Council in Bengal, under date 24th October, 1817, 
they say : * " The sentiments expressed in our despatch 
of 18th September, 1816, will have prepared you to 
expect our approbation of the measures adopted by 
you for the purpose of supplying from the Government 
stores a quantity of opium for the internal consump- 
tion of the country. We wish it at the same time 
to be clearly understood, that our sanction is given 
to these measures, not with a view to the revenue 

' Kaye'a *' Memorials of Indian Groyernment," p. 149. 
' Appendix to Report on the Affairs of the East India Com- 
pany, 1831, p. 1 1. In British Museum, vol. vl. of 1831, p. 369. 



44 BRITISH OPIUM POLICY. 

which they may yield, but in the hope that they will 
tend to restrain the use of this pernicious drug, and 
that the regulations for the internal sale of it wiU be 
so framed as to prevent its introduction into districts 
where it is n^t used, and to limit its consumption in 
other places as nearly as possible to what may be 
absolutely necessary. Were it possible to prevent 

THE USE op the DRUG ALTOGETHER, EXCEPT FOR THE 
PURPOSES OF MEDICINE, WE WOULD GLADLY DO IT IN 

COMPASSION TO MANKIND." Noble Sentiments these, 
which would have covered the Directors with im- 
mortal honour had they been consistently carried 
out. 

In accordance with their deliberate policy of 
" employing taxation less as an instrument of raising 
a revenue than as a preservative of the health and 
morals of the community," the Directors abso- 
lutely prohibited cultivation of the poppy in certain 
districts,^ restricted it within limits in others, kept 

^ Government Letter, No. 1359, to the Revenue Commis- 
sioners, dated 18th June, 1836. ''In reply, I am instructed to 
observe, that as this Government has been directed bj the Supreme 
Grovemment (and in their directions the Court of Directors have 
concurred) to afford no encouragement whatever to the growth ofopiwn 
in the territories under this presidency (Bombay), and to prevent, as 
far as possible, the extension of the cultivation ; and as the growth 
of the drug is new to the Poona district, the Rig^t Honourable 
the Governor in Council considers it incumbent on this Govern- 
ment, however disinterested it may be to the interests of individuals, 
to discourage it by all means in its power.*' 

Government Resolution, No. 479, of 2lBt January, 1854. — 
'* The Government will neither purchase the opium produced nor 
forego the duty thereon ; and that in the event of the duty not 
being paid, the collector will be required to enforce the pro- 



^ THE EAST INDIA COMPANY'S OPIUM POLICY. 45 

vigilant control of the sale of opium, and made their 
charge for it as high as possible without making the 
temptation to illicit dealings too powerful. The 
result of this policy appears satisfactory.* Through- 
out their wide dominions, and during a long course 
of years, it is not surprising if sometimes good 
intentions were imperfectly executed. Critics aver 
that the excise system tended to introduce, and pro- 
mote a taste for, the excisable articles. But if these 
criticisms can be substantiated, they amount to no 
more than convictions of errors in judgment. Whether 
owing to the Company's regulations, or to the tem- 
perance of the people, the consumption of opium in 
British India has been very moderate. The value of 
the opium sold from Government stores in 1668-9 
was only 300,000Z., and of this sum 200,000Z. was 
clear Government profit. The cost of production 
being about 30Z. per chest, this sum represents 
about 3400 chests of Government opium consumed 
in India. Comparing this quantity with the 50,000 
chests sent to China, it is clear at a glance that the 
Company's own territories are insignificant con- 
tributors to the opium revenue; and we have no 
difficulty in giving the Directors and their agents full 

visions of the existing law, it being the earnest desire of Govern- 
ment to discourage the production of the drug in their own terri' 
tories** Papers relating to the Opium Question, 1870, p. 7. 

* When this was written the author had not seen the 
Official Reports about the progress of the opium vice in British 
Burma. The reader can refer to the extracts in the Appendix 
and judge for himself whether or not the Britif<h Government 
is directly responsible for the introduction and propagation of the 
vice in that portion of our territory. 



46 BRITISH OPIUM POLICY. 

credit for sincerity in carrying out their repressive 
policy to the best of their ability. This small con- 
sumption in Bengal is the more striking in contrast 
to the immense amount consumed in the native 
states of Central and Western India, the internal 
government of which is in the hands of native princes. 
Mr. W. Neville Sturt, in his Report to Parliament,* 
estimates the consumption in Rajpootana and Central 
India at 20,000 chests. The Rajpoots and the 
Sikhs are almost universally addicted to opium- 
eating. 

A few words in explanation of the East India 
Gk)vemment's connection with opium may be useful. 
Popular language constantly speaks oE " our Indian 
Empire " as if it were a homogeneous unity ; and 
probably multitudes of Englishmen have the im- 
pression that all the vast peninsula, from the Hima- 
layas to the eastern and western oceans, belongs 
directly to the British crown. This is not the case. 
Speaking roughly, about two-thirds belongs to 
Britain, and one-third is still under the rule of 
Indian sovereigns, Maharajahs, Rajahs, Nawabs, 
Begums, and other Hindoo designations of thrones, 
principalities, and powers. The independence of 
these native states is fettered by the presence of 
British residents at their courts, who hold varying 
degrees of influence, but as far as opium is concerned 
they are now practically independent. This im- 
portant difference between British territory and 

* East India (Progress and Condition) during thejear 1870-71, 
p. 78. 



THE EAST INDIA COMPANY'S OPIUM POLICY. 47 

native territory divided the opium concerns of the 
Company into two quite dissimilar sections. Patna 
and Malwa conyeniently designate these sections. 
Patna opium is produced on British territory; 
Malwa opium is grown in the native states. 

Patna opium alone is the subject of the "mo- 
nopoly." It is important to remember that when 
we speak of " the opium monopoly " this does not 
cover the whole of the opium which is produced in 
India, and sent to China. The monopoly only exists 
for the British territory, and as in British territory 
the poppy is only allowed to be cultivated in two 
districts, Behar and Benares,' of which Benares is 
the larger, the monopoly opium is commonly called 
Benares opium, or from the chief station in Benares, 
Patna opium. This Patna opium is in amount con- 
siderably more than the Malwa, and contributes say 
two-thirds — rather over two-thirds — of the revenue. 
For this, and for this only, the monopoly is respon- 
sible ; the Company's connexion with Malwa, which 
was less direct, must be set forth separately. This 
monopoly system was very simple. The Company 
reserved to itself the sole right of cultivating the 
poppy and of selling the opium. Any infringement 
of this jealously-guarded right was promptly and 
inexorably punished by confiscation, fine, imprison- 

* And in the Panjab, where it is grown for local consumption. 
Hitherto^ however, there has been some uncertaintj about the law 
in the Panjab and the Madras and Bombay Presidencies. To 
remove this, and place the whole of British India under the pro- 
visions of the Bengal Opium Act, Sir William Muir introduced 
a Bill into the Council of the Governor- Greneral last year. 



48 BttlTISH OPIUM POLICY. 

ment. All Government officials, police, native 
watchmen, and even the native landowners were 
obliged to assist in protecting the monopoly. The 
Company did not, however, engage directly in the 
cultivation. This was left to the ryots, or farmers. 
The Company's portion of the actual business con- 
sisted in inspecting the land offered for poppy culti- 
vation, making advances of money to the ryot, to 
whom a licence for cultivating so much land was 
granted; receiving and examining, packing and 
storing, the opium brought in ; retailing it to the 
licensed vendors in Bengal, selling it wholesale for 
exportation at Calcutta. Not an acre of land could 
be sowed with poppy seed, without licence from the 
Company's agent. Not a pound of opium in all 
Bengal but must be delivered to the Company's 
dep6t before it could become an article of merchan- 
dise. The Company, therefore, were gigantic capi- 
talists, doing business wholesale and retail on an im- 
mense scale, without any rivals, and engrossing the 
whole of the production and sale. The price for home 
consumption was about three times the cost of pro- 
duction. The opium for export, the great bulk of 
the trade, was sold by auction in Calcutta, realizing 
generally about four times the cost of production. 
We describe the monopoly here in the past tense, 
because we are treating of the extinct East India 
Company's affairs, but as the monopoly was in the 
Company's days so it is to-day. The transference 
of power from Leadenhall Street to St. Stephen's 
produced no change whatever in the system. 



THE EAST INDIA COMPANY'S OPIUM POLICY. 49 

The monopoly has been attacked on side issues, 
which we shall simply allude to here. One is that 
this system of advances may be and has been abused. 
When we find the Company advancing two-thirds 
or nearly the whole value of the opium before it is 
brought to their factory, one- third before a hoe has 
touched the field, it is plain that it is not a policy 
of restriction which is at work here. And when 
too we hear of the amount of cultivation suddenly 
expanding in obedience to the declard wish of 
the great capitalist, who is at the same time sove- 
reign of the poor peasants who work for him, it is 
difficult to believe that the action of the Government 
is always so clean as defenders of the system assert." 

' That this natural suspicion is justified hj facts appears 
from the testimony of Sir William Muir, in his Minute of 22nd 
Fehruary, 1868. — "A few years ago, when the Government of 
Bengal was straining every nerve to extend the cultivation of 
the poppy, I was witness to the discontent of the agricultural 
population in certain districts west of the Jumna, from which the 
crop was for the first time heing raised. Where the system of 
advances has long been in vogue, and the mode of preparing the 
drug well understood, no doubt the poppy is a popular crop ; 
though even there the system of Government monopoly gives to 
Government officers a power of interference over those who have 
once taken their advances which must be liable to abuse. But 
the case to which I allude was that of new districts, where the 
poppy had not hitherto been grown, and into which the Bengal 
Board were endeavouring to extend the cultivation by the bait of 
large advances among an unwilling peasantry, and at the risk of 
Inoculating them with a taste for a deleterious drug, and all this 
with the sole view of securing a wider area of poppy cultivation, and 
thus a firmer grasp of the China market. Witnessing this when on 
circuit in 1864, the impropriety of the position was to my mind so 
painful that, as the Governor-General may perhaps recollect, I ven- 
tured at the time to address his Excellency directly on the subject." 

E 



50 BRITISH OPIUM POLICY. 

Of course there ought to be no compulsion, of course 
no ryot need receive the advances unless he pleases, 
of course it would appear more to the advantage of 
the Company to secure willing service by liberal 
payment than to make discontented serfs of its sub- 
jects. Whether or not the charges brought against 
the Company by adverse critics, and stoutly denied by 
its own oflBcials, be true or not, or only true ex- 
ceptionally, we cannot well ascertain, nor need we 
particularly care to inquire. If the monopoly can 
be defended on its general merits, this is a mere 
matter of detail which may be subsequently and 
separately dealt with, and we may safely leave it to 
public opinion and the public press in India. 

A second charge is that the cultivation of the 
poppy has withdrawn a large proportion of the best 
land from the production of food. This charge will 
be considered in a subsequent chapter. On the 
whole, so far as its operation upon India is concerned, 
the monopoly is but a pecuUar method of taxation. 
It is foreign to the thoughts and customs of England; 
it is open to the serious objection of presenting the 
supreme Government before the minds of its subjects 
in the humiliating guise of a dealer in noxious drugs; 
it is a cumbrous device for accomplishing what 
might be much more simply effected by a direct tax, 
and it will always be liable to the suspicion of abuse 
through unfair dealing by some of the numberless 
petty officials who must be employed to carry it out. 
But there is this powerful argument in its favour 
which, in the minds of many Indian statesmen. 



THE EAST INDIA COMPANX's OPIUM POLICY. 51 

counterbalances a host of objections ; it is an old, 
established custom. " The people of India will bear 
a great deal so long as they are used to it. They 
are very intolerant to change. They do not under- 
stand it. They are timid and suspicious. Benevo- 
lence and wisdom may go hand in hand in our 
measures, but the people are not easily persuaded 
that what we are doing is for their good."' Pro- 
bably if our Government were now to begin, we 
should not establish any monopoly. But the East 
India Company inherited the monopolies of opium 
and of salt from .their predecessors in sovereignty. 
The British Government has taken them over from 
the East India Company. Open as they both are to 
practical and moral objections, if nothing worse can 
be alleged against them than has appeared from our 
investigation into the working of the opium monopoly 
in India, we might be content to leave them both to 
be dealt with by experts in Indian affairs. On 
Indian soil the monopoly takes the place of a tax ; 
it is a maximum charge upon the consumption : and, 
total abolition of poppy growth excepted, probably no 
change of name or method would do more to accom- 
plish that repression of the use of the drug which 
was the avowed object of the Company's legislation. 
One thing, however, must be written against the 
monopoly as affecting India, and this is properly 
not a result of legislation for the inhabitants of 
India, but belongs to that cultivation for revenue of 
which we are now to speak. The habit of opium- 

* Kaye^B ** Administration of the East India Company.*' 

E 2 



52 BRITISH OPIUM POLICY. 

eating is naturally formed and spreads round the 
villages where it is grown. If the Government 
restricted the cultivation within such limits as would 
supply the Indian demand, it would also restrict the 
area throughout which the cultivation itself would 
breed the habit of use. Inasmuch as the Company 
extended the cultivation vastly beyond the supply 
needed for their own dominions, so they greatly 
extended the influence of the cultivation in spread- 
ing a taste for the drug through the villages. It is 
impossible to say how large a proportion of this 
Indian consumption of 3400 chests must be attri- 
buted to this origin. But certainly the Company 
did not manufacture an immense supply for foreign 
use, without inoculating numbers of their own people 
with a hking for the indulgence. This was the 
inevitable penalty of their indifference to the moral 
welfare of strangers. The publican may sternly 
coerce his children to sign the pledge, or earnestly 
point out to them the evils of intemperance, but if 
he sedulously builds up a fortime by the sale of 
intoxicating drinks, it will be strange indeed if his 
children should altogether escape the influence of 
the traflBc. This unhappy result of the monopoly is 
directly dependent upon the cultivation for the sake 
of revenue, which we discern to have been the East 
India Company's poHcy from the first. Kepression 
at home : revenue from outside. 

We have quoted above the distinct avowal of the 
intention of the Directors to repress the use of opium 



THE EAST INDIA COMPANY*S OPIUM POLICY. 53 

in India ; a parallel frank avowal of their purpose to 
encourage the use abroad, we do not find in their 
records. But we do find that from so far back as 
last century the Company admitted the proceeds of 
sale for exportation into their books, without inquiry 
and without hesitation : and that from that day to 
this the monopoly has been conducted so as to derive 
as great a revenue from this source as possible, and 
without the slightest regard to the destination of the 
opium and its efiects upon the welfare of humanity. 
At first the export trade was small, and may easily 
have escaped the attention of the Directors. A 
Parliamentary report of 1810 tells us that the opium 
sales produced 250,000Z. in 1793, and in 1808-9 had 
mounted up to 594,9 78Z. These returns appear to 
include both the home sale and the export: and 
whether they are gross or net receipts we do not 
know. But from these small beginnings the profits 
of the manufacture gradually rose, until in 1830 the 
revenue nearly reached a million sterling ; in 1843 it 
was about two millions ; in 1853 it was three millions 
and a half, and in 1873 six millions and a half. Such 
an expansion as this did not grow in the dark.^ There 
is abundant evidence, and it is explicitly acknow- 
ledged by the highest representatives of the Indian 
Government, that the Company managed the mono- 
poly with the express purpose of supplying the 
China trade. Their opium factories were worked to 
prepare an article saleable in the Chinese market. 
Inquiries were instituted and experiments made to 
discover how the drug could be prepared to suit the 



54 BBITISH OPIUM POLICY. 

Chinese palate. The profits of the China trade were 
the one object of the monopoly. The inconsiderable 
quantity consumed in their own territories was of 
no account for the great end of the monopoly, the 
acquisition of revenue. Every ball of opium filled • 
in the Government factories was intended to transfer 
a certain amount of solid silver from the pockets of 
citizens of China into the Indian treasury. The very 
form of preparation marked out its destination. 
Opium intended for home use was not done up in 
balls, so that when the drug left the factories the 
shape it had assumed proclaimed the use it was 
meant for. Moreover Indian finance ministers 
watched with anxiety the fluctuations of the Chinese 
market, kept the merchants' keen glance steadily 
directed to quarters from which any interference or 
competition with the trade was apprehended. This 
lively concern to preserve intact the proceeds of so 
lucrative a trade is notably manifested in the action 
of the Company with regard to Malwa opium, which 
we must now proceed to explain. 

From Bombay to Canton is only a slightly longer 
voyage than from Calcutta to that port. It may 
appear at first sight rather strange that a monopoly 
of the opium trade from the eastern port could be 
of immense value, when there were opium-producing 
districts in states not under the Company's rule, 
which could send out unlimited quantities of the 
article from the western port. If these native states 
had been really independent, and had possessed ready 
access to the sea, the monopoly would soon have 



THE EAST INDU COMPANY'S OPIUM POLICY. 55 

been despoiled of its bloom. But immediately 
competition threatened, the all-powerful Company 
stepped in and protected its precious traffic by 
energetic measures. Mr. James Mill states that " so 
long as the country between Malwa and the coast 
was in the hands of the Mahrattas, and the transport 
of valuable commodities was insecure, only a small 
quantity reached the coast. When the country came 
into our possession, and carriage was safe, it was 
seen that a large supply might go to the China 
market, and lower the price. To obviate this evil 
we entered into treaties with the chieftains in whose 
territories the opium is grown, and obtained their 
consent to limit the quantity grown in their terri- 
tories, and to sell the whole of it to us." In plain 
terms the Company compelled these nominally 
independent states to give to it the same monopoly 
which it enjoyed in Bengal. Pecuniary grants were 
made to the native princes, Holkar, Scindia, and 
others : but the dissatisfaction of all parties was so 
great, that the Company's agents repeatedly and 
emphatically urged the abandonment of the treaties, 
even at the cost of giving up all the gains of the 
Bengal monopoly. This Malwa monopoly endured 
from 1818 to 1831, an agent of the Company residing 
at Indore to purchase the opium, which was then 
sold by auction in Bombay. The blue-books give 
us glimpses of discontented princes, oppressed 
cultivators, desperate smuggling affrays, dissatisfied 
merchants; but it would be waste of labour to 
reproduce the picture, because the Malwa monopoly 



56 BRITISH OPIUM POLICY. 

is a thing of the past. It is only worth while to 
refer to it now, as a proof of the determined zeal 
with which the Directors protected their old Eastern 
monopoly at all hazards. In 1831 the Company 
annulled the treaties, and gave up the Malwa mono- 
poly. How was it that they could afford to do this ? 
They had now obtained command of the whole coast 
from which the opium could be shipped, except the 
port of Damaun, to which the route from the opium 
districts is long and exceedingly difficult. They 
took advantage of their geographical position to 
impose a duty on each chest, varying at different 
times from 125 to 700 rupees * by which means they 
raised a considerable revenue from the Malwa trade, 
and prevented it from underselling their Patna opium 
in the China market. This duty, fixed for several 
years past at 600 rupees per chest, is payable in the 
native states before the journey to the coast begins. 
The Malwa monopoly while it existed, and the sub- 
sequent exaction of transit duty upon Malwa opium, 

> The following is from the Minute of Sir William Muir : — 
*^ It will be useful to note the various rates which have ruled 
from time to time the export duty from Western India. They 
are as follows : — 

Period. Pass Daty per No. of Chests exported. 

Ohest. 

Rs. 1751 

125 I From 8000 to 16,000 an- 

200 f nually. 

300 J 

donf Gritiduallj increased to 

^^ \ about 34,000 annually. 

f^^^ I Annual average about 
^ y 35,000 chests, indud- 



Prior to 1 835 
1835 to 1842 
1843 to 1845 
1845 to 1847 

1848 to 1858 



1859 
1860 
1861 



1 862 and iubiequently 600 J ^°S Ahmedabad. 



THE EAST INDU COMPANY'S OPIUM POLICY. 57 

* 

diflfered from the Bengal monopoly in this, that in 
the native states the Company made no pretences of 
morality, interfered in no way with the drug except 
for the sake of revenue, restricted the cultivation 
solely to obtain increased profits. On the one hand 
they escaped in Malwa the opprobrium of being the 
actual producers of the drug ; and on the other they 
did nothing to check the fearful prevalence of opium- 
eating in Malwa and Rajpootana. Their action on 
that side was animated by pure and undissembled 
desire for revenue. 

Such was the opium policy of the East India 
Company — to discourage opium-eating among its 
own subjects, and at the same time to acquire the 
maximum of revenue by the exportation of opium, 
whether of the Company's own manufacture, or pro- 
duced in the territories of the native chiefs. The 
next point to consider is who were the customers 
patronizing the Company's opiimi shop. Was India 
the source of supply for all the world, and did ships 
of every flag resort to her ports to purchase this 
valuable medicine ? Had it been so, the morality of 
the traffic might have been the same, but its cha- 
racter would not have been so apparent. India 
might have plausibly pleaded ignorance. " How can 
I know where all this opium goes to, and what use 
is made of it ? All nations apply to me for a drug 
which is advantageously produced on my estate, and 
which the general consent of humanity proves it to 
be advantageous for other nations to buy of me. 
Let those nations answer for themselves as to the 



58 BRITISH OPIUM POLICY. 

use they make of their purchase. Free trade and 
no questions asked is my motto.*' But the Com- 
pany could not conceal the character of their com- 
merce in opium by profession of ignorance of its 
destination. India had but one customer, one well- 
known customer, for whose special use every chest 
of her opium was packed ; that customer, a neigh- 
bour, with whom she had had friendly dealings for a 
hundred years, the Chinese empire. The fact was 
notorious, because record was kept in Government 
offices of the destination of every cargo which was 
exported. It is not literally exact to say that China 
was the only customer : but if for China we sub- 
stitute China and Chinese emigrants in the Malay 
archipelago, we attain to an almost exact expression 
for the consumers of Indian exported opium. It 
appears from the returns that a small fraction, about 
one-eleventh, of the whole export, was taken up by 
Penang, Singapore, Java, and other places, where it 
is well known that the resident Chinese are the chief 
consumers. This fraction, however, is so small that 
for all practical purposes we may reason upon the ex- 
portation to China itself. If that can be defended, 
all can be defended ; if that must be condemned, the 
whole trade is condemned. In the Appendix will 
be found tables transcribed from official returns, which 
show the numbers of chests exported to China and 
to other ports. According to these tables in seven 
years, from 1849-50 to 1855-56, there were sent 
from Calcutta to China 234,986 chests ; from Bom- 
bay to China 166,446 chests, making a total in seven 



THE EAST INDIA COMPANY'S OPIUM POLICY. 59 

years of 401,402 chests. During this same seven 
years 38,647 chests were sent to Singapore, Penang, 
&c. Possibly some Malwa opium was sent to the 
straits, though no mention is made of it in these 
returns. But allowing a margin for this omission, 
the returns show that nine-tenths of the export from 
India went to the dominions of the Emperor of 
China, and therefore nine-tenths of the Company's 
revenue was paid by the people of an alien realm. 

The Christian religion teaches us that we should 
love our neighbours as ourselves, and refuses to 
recognize distinctions between Jew, Greek, and 
Scythian. Even the heathen sage Confucius is re- 
ported to have said, "All in the world are brethren." 
It is painful to observe that such a man as James 
Mill seems to have regarded it as the recommendation 
of the monopoly, that it poured into the Indian 
treasury a large income derived from foreigners. 
But surely Mr. Mill would not have thought it 
desirable, if it were possible, to extract ten millions 
a year out of French pockets to pay for the army, 
the police, the poor-rate of England. Such a sug- 
gestion would have suited the age of ancient Greece 
and Bome, when the state was everything, and 
humanity was not yet discovered; but it is an 
anachronism in this nineteenth Christian century. 
One can understand the argument of those who 
maintain that the monopoly is simply equivalent to 
the imposition of a heavy tax upon the " pernicious 
drug," and that the Company were thereby actually 
doing what they could to restrain the consumption 



60 BRITISH OPIUM POLICY. 

abroad as well as at Home, although that argument 
by no means tallies with the facts of the case ; but 
that people should find a positive ground of satis- 
faction in the vast consumption of a deleterious article 
in China, because it enriches India, and only injures 
Chinese, is so abhorrent to our feelings of justice 
and humanity that it is difficult to meet such views 
with a calm and courteous reply. Why, then, should 
Englishmen, who, by a wonderfiil series of events, 
find themselves lords of two hundred millions of 
Asiatics in India, be bound by every tie of human 
and Christian obligation to be careful of the physical 
and moral weal of these Hindoos, and yet be released 
from all obligation toward four hundred millions of 
Asiatics who dwell farther east ? By what principle 
of political morality were these rulers of India per- 
mitted to be utterly indifferent to the corruption and 
ruin of China? Must we first wage war upon a 
people, deprive it of its independence, usurp the 
throne of its native princes, subjugate it to an alien 
and unwelcome sway, before we come under an 
obligation not to undermine its prosperity, de- 
moralize its population, and ruin myriads of its 
citizens ? 

Mr. Smith and Mr. Jonies were extensive sheep- 
farmers in Australia, their estates being divided only 
by a river. Both gentlemen had large families and 
employed many hands. Mr. Smith was himself a 
strong advocate of temperance, and used his in- 
fluence to induce his sons and servants to be water- 
drinkers, but if any of them declined to adopt his 



THB BAST INDIA COMPANY*S OPIUM POLICY. 61 

advice, he took care that they should have no oppor- 
tunity of giving way to excess, by strictly limiting 
the supply of intoxicating drinks upon his estate. 
Across the water Mr. Jones might or might not 
share his sentiments, but for himself he was resolved 
he would have no drunkenness upon his farm. It 
happened one night that a canoe came over from the 
opposite side, and a stranger asked to purchase a 
bottle of brandy. There was no town near, no 
other source from which the man could supply him- 
self, and Mr. Smith, who saw his opportunity, asked 
and received three or four hundred per cent, profit 
upon the brandy. The traflGic thus begun, gradually 
increased. Mr. Smith found that brandy was always 
saleable over the way, and soon disposed of all his 
stock, but as soon repleaished it from the nearest 
town. Something perhaps whispered that this con- 
duct was inconsistent, but then the profits were so 
great, and sheep-farming was not altogether so suc- 
cessful as he could have wished. It was Mr. Jones's 
business to look after his own dependents. Did not 
he, Mr. Smith, stringently repress any inclination 
to excessive indulgence among his own people ? Let 
Mr. Jones maintain discipline among his sons and 
shepherds ; that was his affair. By and by rumours 
reach him that Mr. Jones is much distressed at this 
increase of drunkenness on his estate, that he takes 
it as very unneighbourly that Mr. Smith should pro- 
vide the means which sustain it, and indeed that Mr. 
Jones has positively prohibited any person on his 
estate from purchasing liquor from the opposite 



62 BBinSH OPIUM POUCT. 

shore. Mr. Smith's position now became awkward. 
He had always regarded himself as an honourable 
and conscientious man ; and disliked the business in 
which he was engaged; but then the profits were 
really of consequence to him. His expenses were so 
great that he could not afford to lose them. How- 
ever, something must be done to preserve his repu- 
tation. So he summoned his boys and his servants 
together, and strictly enjoined them not to carry a 
bottle across the river. Meantime he has a hundred 
dozen of Hennessy's and Martell's brands in his 
store-room. Must all that prove a dead loss ? He 
was saved from his dilemma by the offer of a third 
party to relieve him of his stock. The purchaser to 
his knowledge conveyed it across the water. From 
this time Mr. Smith never failed to keep up a good 
supply of spirits. Sounds of drunken riot came 
across the river : it was reported that one man had 
died of delirium tremens^ and another had robbed his 
master's desk, and another had been discharged, and 
wandered about begging. Mr. Jones was old and 
infirm ; and his overseer connived at the introduction 
of liquor against his master's orders. Mr. Smith 
defended himself by saying that owners of large 
estates ought not to be old and infirm, and ought 
not to employ dishonest overseers. He did not send 
the brandy across : he put a stop to that at once, 
directly he heard that Mr. Jones objected to it ; it 
was too much to expect him to keep watch over Mr. 
Jones's servants as well as his own. So Mr. Smith 
kept up the brandy supply, and found the money 



TUB EAST INDIA COMPANY'S OPIUM POLICY. 63 

very useful on his farm. He read the Liturgy regu- 
larly every Sunday to his family and dependents, 
watched carefully over their morals, and would have 
been angry if any one had chaUenged his right to 
be esteemed an honourable, Christian gentleman. 

Our little apologue will explain itself, but to 
depict the Company's policy in its real character, the 
imaginary sketch is all too feeble. There is but 
one justification attempted for this opium-trade, and 
that a poor one, but such as it is, it is this : that it 
was not the Company's affair to inquire for what 
use China demanded such a vast quantity of opium; 
for all that the Directors could tell, there might be 
something in the Chinese climate or constitution 
which made opium beneficial there ; but it was for 
the Chinese themselves to judge of that. The 
Chinese did judge of that. Before this century 
began, when the Company's shipments had increased 
the import into China firom a hundred or two, to 
thousands of chests, the attention of the Chinese 
Emperor and mandarins was drawn to the increasing 
consumption of the drug ; and they judged it deci- 
sively, once for all, and from that day to this they 
have never faltered in their decision. And what was 
their judgment ? One may put it in the Company's 
own words. They judged that opium was a per- 
nicious drug, that it demoralized the people, and that 
they must out of compassion to their subjects pre- 
vent its use altogether. They did not say, as the 
Company did, "were it possible:" they believed it 
possible, and determined to do it. They absolutely 



64 BEITISH OPIUM POLICY. 

forbade the intrbduction and use of the drug. They 
enacted severe and yet severer laws against it. The 
Company were well aware of all this. They, and 
they only, had the right of trading with China, and 
the superintendents of their factories kept them 
constantly informed of all these proceedings of 
the Chinese Government. What course did these 
Directors pursue, who would so gladly " out of com- 
passion to mankind," have " prevented the use of the 
pernicious drug altogether " ? They straitly charged 
their own servants not to introduce the drug into 
their ships or factories, and continued regularly to 
manufacture every year a large quantity of opium ex- 
pressly for the China market^ knowing^ one may say 
meaning^ it to be smuggled into China. This they did 
without intermission or hesitation, concealment, or 
apology, for more than fifty years. It is diflBcult to 
speak of the morality, or rather the degree of immo- 
rality, of such a proceeding as this. 

The particular nature of this smuggling trade we 
shall have to notice in portraying the Chinese 
policy. At present it is enough to remark that the 
East India Company's policy was to provide the 
materials of a well-known smuggling trade. They, 
the Governors of a mighty nation, systematically 
encouraged the infraction of the laws of another 
great nation for the sake of gain to their own 
treasury. Though that phase of the opium-trade is 
a thing of the past, it is impossible to think of it 
even now without a deep sense of shame. 



CHAPTER IV. 

OnUM POLICY OF THE BEITI8H GOVEBKMBNT. 

In 1858 the magnificent dominion of the East India 
Company was placed under the direct rule of the 
British crown. From that year our national respon- 
sibility for the opium trade became clear and imme- 
diate. 

But it would be an error to suppose that the 
British Parliament and people can plead irresponsi- 
bility previous to 1858. At no time was the East 
India Company an independent authority. It was 
always part and parcel of the English nation, and 
under the control of the national Government. Its 
authority was not self -created, but an emanation from 
the supreme authority of the nation. Its charters 
were repeatedly revised and renewed, and at length 
extinguished by that authority. Again and again 
parliamentary committees sat for months and years, 
submitting all the concerns of the Company to 
minute inspection. In these detailed examinations 
of the Company's transactions, their opixun policy 
did not escape criticism. Once and again the mono- 
poly appeared to tremble in the balance. It main- 

j 



66 BRITISH OPIUM POLICY. 

tained its ground, and that it did so, sufficiently 
proves the concurrence of the British Government. 
In 1810 and 1812 the opium concerns of the Com- 
pany, and its commercial relations with China, were 
the subjects of investigation. In 1832 we find a 
distinct ratification of the Bengal monopoly, which is 
especially to be noted because in the Report of the 
Committee of Parliament which investigated Indian 
affairs in 1831, the opposition of the Chinese Govern- 
ment to the introduction of opium was emphatically 
brought to the notice of the committee, by letters 
laid before it from the select committee of the East 
India Company at Canton, expressly drawing the 
attention of the Directors to the severe measures 
threatened by the Chinese against this iUegal traffic 
in opium, and intimating their fear that the local 
Government was determined to suppress the illicit 
commerce . * It was with these letters before them, and 
with the full knowledge that the trade was a smug- 
gling trade, and that the Company had recognized 
its true character by forbidding their own ships and 
servants to be engaged in it, that the Committee of 
the House of Commons deUberately approved and 
adopted the opium policy of the East India Directors 
as their own. The Report says : — 

" The monopoly of opium in Bengal supplies the 
Government with a revenue amounting in sterling 
money to 981,293Z., per annum; and the duty which 
is thus imposed amounts to 301 1 per cent, on the 

^ Appendix II. to Report on Afisirs of East India Company, 
1831, pp. 134—136. 



OPIUM POLICY OF THE BHITISH GOVERNMENT. 67 

cost of the article. In the present state of tJie revenut 
of India, it does not appear advisable to abandon so 
important a source of revenue, a duty upon opium 
being a tax whicli falls principally upon the foreign 
consumer, and which appears upon the whole less 
liable to objection than any other which could be 
substituted.'* * 

From this time forth the British Parliament be- 
came distinctly the upholdei- of the East India Com- 
pany's action in the matter. The Report goes on to 
sp^ak of the precariousness of this revenue, and the 
probability that at no distant time it may be desir- 
able to substitute for monopoly an export duty ; but 
all reference to the morality of the traflGic is discreetly 
avoided. The key-note of the British opium policy 
was struck, and henceforth was never changed. That 
key-note was, and is, the revenue is too great to he 
abandoned. Parliament in effect said, " We cannot 
afford to examine into the righteousness of the 
thing. Are we to throw away a million sterling on 
account of fine-drawn scruples ? Smuggling trade, 
is it ? We know that : but we cannot give up so 
flourishing a revenue. The Chinese Emperor objects ? 
Then let him stop the trade, if he can. He does not 
complain to us, and while we can ignore his objec- 
tions, we will." In this spirit our rulers clutched at 
the profits of a scandalous commerce ; and to this 
day there has been no national repentance. 

In 1833 the East India Company's exclusive 

' Reports from Committees, 1831-2. East India Company's 
Affairs, III. Revenue, p. 10. 

F 2 



68 BBITISH OPIUM POLICY. 

privileges of trade with China were withdrawn, 
and the trade thrown open. From this time our 
Goyemment was drawn into closer relations with 
the Chinese authorities. Previously the factory at 
Canton had been in charge of a superintendent 
appointed by the Company, to which he made his 
reports, so that the English - Government had no 
direct communication with that of China. In the 
new circumstances it was considered necessary to 
appoint some responsible officer to represent Great 
Britain in China ; accordingly Lord Napier was sent 
out in 1884 as Chief Superintendent of Trade, with 
vague powers, which failed to give him sufficient 
authority to exercise practical control over his 
countrymen; the power which the East India 
Compan/s officers had possessed, of excluding a 
refractory merchant from the trade, being withheld. 
His brief tenure of office is memorable only for the 
determined resistance which the Chinese provincial 
Government offered to his attempts to enter into 
direct communications with them. During the 
Company's time the mandarins had sent and 
received communications through the medium of a 
native guild of thirteen firms, styled in our books 
the Hong merchants or Co-hong, who were made 
responsible by their Government for the good 
behaviour of the foreigners. The Chinese officials 
haughtily refused to dispense with this means of 
intercourse. They would recognize the foreigners 
as private traders only, for whom sureties must be 
found amongst the Chinese before privilege of trade 



OPIUM POLICY OF THE BRITISH GOVERNMENT. 69 

could be granted ; and were resolved to ignore the 
existence of the foreign Governments. When Lord 
Napier arrived, and pressed upon them his creden- 
tials as representative of the British crown, they 
rudely flung them back in his face. The issue of 
the struggle was that Lord Napier was compelled to 
retreat to Macao, where, worn out by vexations and 
insults, he succumbed to the fatal effects of the 
cUmate, and died just three months after his landing 
in China. 

This essay is strictly devoted to a consideration 
of the opium question, and it therefore becomes the 
writer's painiul duty to expose the faults of his own 
country. But it would be altogether a mistake to 
suppose that he is blind to the faults of China. In 
his opinion it would not be tocr much to say that 
the Chinese Government brought upon itself all the 
evils of the opium trade, and the consequent wars, 
by its arrogant refiisal to enter into intercourse 
with foreigners. In review of the insulting lan- 
guage and behaviour of the high officials of Canton, 
one might fairly have addressed their successors 
thus : — " In your haughty conceit you behoved or 
pretended to beheve that western barbarians did not 
possess the same human nature as your own. You 
spumed their approaches with contempt, though 
they came with every appearance of respect and 
friendship. You determined to regard them as 
savage beasts ; what right have you now to com- 
plain if they are wearied out by your refusal to 
reason with them, and employ brute force to attain 



70 BRITISH OPIUM POLICY. 

their end?" This fatal defect in the Chinese 
character was not local nor temporary, but has been 
displayed throughout all their intercourse vnth 
foreigners. 

Earl Macartney *8 embassy in 1792, and Lord 
Amherst's in 1816, were conceived in a most con- 
ciliatory spirit, and had the Chinese Government 
received them with frank cordiality, all the mischief 
and disgrace of the succeeding complications might 
have been avoided. The opium trade might have 
been made the subject of earnest expostulations, 
which the English Government neither could nor 
would have evaded. But in their absurd pretension 
to universal supremacy, the Chinese despised the 
golden opportunity. Lord Macartney was treated 
civilly, but only as bearer of tribute from a distant 
region bowing to the world-sovereignty of the Son 
of Heaven. Lord Amherst was required to perform 
the nine prostrations before the Emperor, and, upon 
his declining, was unceremoniously dismissed with- 
out an audience. China, by her overweening pride, 
invited, almost necessitated, the long string of cala- 
mities which succeeded. Yet faults on the other side 
do not atone for our own. The fatuous pride of a 
pagan nation, for which one may see much excuse in 
its venerable antiquity, its ancient supremacy over the 
neighbouring countries, its long isolation from, and 
therefore inevitable ignorance of , the rest of the world, 
cannot palliate the unrighteous policy of an enhght- 
ened Christian nation. 

Th*t our own Government was not, in theory, at 



OPIUM POLICY OF THB BRITISH GOVERNMENT. 71 

least, insenBible to its duties, appears from the 
instructions given to Lord Napier under the Royal 
sign manual, upon his entering on his difficult and 
delicate conunission :^ — 

" And wa do require you constantly to bear in 
mind, and to impress as occasion may offer, upon 
our subjects resident in, or resorting to China, the 
duiy of conforming to the laws and usages of the 
Chinese Empire, so long as such laws shall be 
administered towards you and them with justice and 
good faith." 

These were the words with which his sovereign 
started Lord Napier on his way to China. Yet the 
smuggling trade was at that time being carried on 
in open violation of the laws and usages of the 
Chinese Empire. But then '*it does not appear 
advisable to abandon so important a source of 
revenue." Nearly a million sterling annually, and 
and all from Chinese pockets ! Therefore while the 
principle was distinctly announced that our Govern- 
ment would not protect British subjects in any diffi- 
culties or disasters that might come upon them in 
consequence of their violation of Chinese law, not a 
word was said of restraining them from violating the 
law. On the contrary, the propositions of the 
superintendents, or their hints in that direction, 
were met with a significant silence. The poUcy was 
mean, but the revenue was large — 1,000,000Z. per 
annum — and Parliament had decided that it must 
not be abandoned. To touch the smugglers was to 

' Con*e8poDdeiice relating to China, 1840, p. 3. 



72 BRITISH OPIUM POLICY. 

extinguish the reventie. Their illicit agency was an 
indispensable link in the collection of that revenue. 
The smugglers did their work quite gratuitously 
and independently ; and could be disavowed when- 
ever their illegalities should threaten to compromise 
the Government. So it seemed; but this policy 
was too base to work well. At the first pressure of 
real interference by the Chinese, our Government 
found that it could riot separat-e itself from those 
who had done its work so long and so profitably. 
It was obliged to wage war on behalf of these 
opium smugglers, and the British tax-payer must 
pay the cost. Against the millions per annum of 
revenue we must set ofi millions that our Chinese 
wars have cost us, and millions more that our British 
manufacturers have lost through the check upon 
their legitimate commerce by this opium trade ; and 
taking aU into account, we easily com^ to the con- 
clusion, that for nations as well as for individuals, 
" honesty is the best policy " after all. 

Lord Napier's successor, Mr., afterwards Sir 
John F. Davis, within the first three months of his 
occupation of the vacated post, forwarded to Lord 
Palmerston a copy of a very stringent Imperial 
edict against the opium trade, which required of 
the Canton Government that the opium store-ships 
should be expelled, that cruisers should be appointed 
to guard against ingress of the contraband article, 
and that officials accepting bribes should be severely 
punished.* As usual, the Hong merchants were 

* China Correspondence, 1840, p. 76. 



OPIUM POLICY OP THE BRITISH GOVERNMENT. 73 

employed to notify the Imperial will and pleasure to 
the unmanageable foreigners, and the injunction 
urging these Hong merchants to greater zeal, con- 
tains an Imperial estimate of the character of these 
foreign visitors, anything but complimentary, but 
alas ! too exactly verified by the facts. His Chinese 
Majesty observes : — " By nature the barbarians have 
no other object but gain, and their clandestine trade 
having existed so long, they certainly will not con- 
tentedly relinquish it." Shrewd Chinese Majesty; 
you have not studied human and barbarian nature 
in vain 1 Mr. Davis read this edict, but issued no 
injunction to his countrymen to abstain from their 
illegal and now perilous practices. He interpreted 
his instructions under the Royal sign manual, with 
due recollection that the revenue of India must be 
taken care of. So he contented himself with for- 
warding it to Viscount Palmerston. He attempted 
no denial of the malpractices of the English 
merchants, he had not a word in defence of his 
countiymen's honour and honesty. But he has just 
one word of consolation for his oflBcial chief, lest his 
lordship should be seriously troubled by anxiety for 
the threatened revenue. ^* It is almost needless to 
observe," he says, in his covering despatch to Lord 
Palmerston, "that previous documents of this 
nature have proved entirely nugatory, and that the 
opium trade has continiied in spite of them." We 
do not know what was Lord Palmerston' s reply; 
but we know that he sent out no orders to resti*ain 
the opium trade. The thunder-cloud which was 



74 BRITISH OPIUM POLICY. 

gathering on the horizon did not burst that year 
nor next, and no doubt Lord Palmerston hoped, 
and tried to expect, that it would never burst 
at all. Why should not this add one more to 
the long list of " entirely nugatory " edicts, and 
the opium-trade "continue in spite of them" to 
swell the East Indian revenue as before ? 

Mr. Davis was soon succeeded by Sir George B. 
Robinson. The new chief-superintendent, instead 
of discountenancing the opium trade, took up his 
abode at Lintin, and actually applied to his Govern- 
ment to purchase a vessel for his permanent residence 
there.* What was there significant in Lintin ? Up 
to 1821 the ships used to bring opium to Whampoa, 
(the port of Canton), and to Macao. In that year 
there was a flagrant exposure of the corruption of 
the Chinese officials, who were bribed to admit 
opium, in consequence of which the opium ships 
were driven from Whampoa, and the Portuguese 
dared not admit them to Macao. So these *' entirely 
nugatory " decrees were not without some practical 
effect. Expelled from the ports, the opium merchants 
established a depdt of receiving or store-ships at 
Lintin, an island off one of the mouths of the Canton 
river, where was their regular harbourage until 1839. 
Whampoa, the port of Canton, was the only place at 
which trade was permitted by the Chinese Govern- 
ment; Lintin was the opium-smuggling station, 
where the illegal traffic was carried on in defiance of 
the Chinese Government. Yet Lintin was the place 

' China CorreBpondence, 1841, p. 115. 



OPIUM poLigr OF the British government. 75 

this BritiBli representative selected for his permanent 
abode, in the very midst of the opium ships. From 
this place he dated his despatch of Feb. 5th, 1836 ® 
to Lord Palmerston, in which he palliates the 
iniquity, and speculates as to the risks of the traffic. 
It appears from this letter that a struggle between 
smugglers and coast-guards was going on all along 
the coast, and that serious conflicts sometimes took 
place. But the superintendent congratulates him- 
self that no European was personally engaged in 
any affray. And then, as if compelled by the terrible 
irony of the situation, he continues ; " whenever his 
Majesty's Government directs us to prevent British 
vessels engaging in the traffic, we can enforce any 
order to that effect, but a more certain method 
would be to prohibit the growth of the poppy, and 
the manufacture of opium in British India ; and if 
British ships are in the habit of committing irre- 
gularities and crimes, it seems doubly necessary to 
exercise a salutary control over them by the presence 
of an authority at Lintin." This despatch shows 
that Sir George Robinson was well aware of the 
" irregularities and crimes " of the smuggling trade; 
and he took care that Lord Palmerston should know 
also. The baronet waits only for a word, and he 
will at once put a stop, or a least a partial check, to 
these excesses. If he could not hinder the trade 
altogether, he could prevent British ships from taking 
part in it. Let Lord Palmerston only write three 
lines of direction, and it shall be done. But his 

• Vide Appendix. 



76 BRITISH onuu Fuucr. 

lordflliip speaks no word^ writes no line. It was 
impossible to interdict smuggling into China without 
injuring the revenue of India, therefore his lordship 
preferred, to use an expressive Americanism, to *' let 
things slide." 

And sliding they were, going down hill at a rapid 
rate. Up to this time the opium-merchants did not 
need to do more than bring the drug to China, and 
take the silver in exchange for it. But as the 
opposition of the Chinese Government grew more 
determined, a change came over the scene. Chinese 
smugglers could not now be found to elude the 
vigilance of the custom-houses ; the customs-officers 
no longer dared to take their bribes and let the drug 
through as before. The thunder-cloud was no 
longer on the horizon, it now frowned portentously 
right over head, and now and again ominous flashes 
leaped forth, harbingers of the coming tempest. On 
land opium-smokers were seized, beaten, imprisoned, 
beheaded. On the water, boats were destroyed, 
smugglers arrested and tortured. The natives were 
thoroughly cowed, and withdrew altogether from 
their old practice of fetching the drug, and running 
it inland. Now at last, the opium-merchants, those 
honourable merchant princes, the Jardines and 
Dents, whose wealth has won for them historical 
fame in the history of British relations with China, 
now at last they will surely for very shame pause in 
their career. Now at length, though too tardily, 
the British representative will send such missives 
home, as will wring the word of command from his 



OPIUM POLICY OF THE BRITISH GOVBENMBNT. 77 

reluctant chief. Now, in spite of the interests of 
the Indian revenue, that chief must surely speak the 
word which wiU save his country's flag from infamy. 
But no. The Chinese emperor had taken the measure 
of British merchants correctly. Honourable excep- 
tions there were, a few upright men, who never had 
and never would enrich themselves by crime. But 
the opium-dealers were determined to carry on their 
lucrative traffic at all risks. And Lord Falmerston P 
The crisis was a grave one. Perhaps his lordship 
took the question to ax cabinet council. If so 
the result was that her Majesty's Government did 
not see their way clear to act. No. Things must 
slide. And they did slide. When the natives 
declined to carry the drug in, the foreign merchants 
carried it in themselves in their own armed schooners 
manned by lascars. Fighting ships were fitted out 
in Calcutta, armed to the teeth, and commanded 
by buccaneering captains, who openly boasted 
they would sink anything and everything which 
attempted to interfere with their sale of the drug 
on the Chinese coast. The East India Company 
continued the steady production of the opium, sold 
it to the China opium-clippers, and entered it in 
their books as exported to China, noticing the 
character of the trade only as it made them feel 
some anidety about the precariousness of the 
revenue. 

Captain Elliot was superintendent of trade from 
1837 to the war. His despatches to Lord Falmerston, 
from which we have given extracts in the Appendix, 



78 BRITISH OPIUM POLICY. 

present a graphic picture of those eventful years. 
It would occupy too much space here to attempt 
a detailed account of that exciting^ time ; especially 
as we must go over the same ground from the 
Chinese point of view, in another chapter. It 
will be seen, then, that the magnitude of the evil 
daunted some Chinese statesmen into hopelessness 
of remedy, and led them* to turn their minds toward 
the legalization of the traffic, as a lesser evil. The 
Imperial Court appeared to hesitate for a brief space, 
but soon recovered its spirit and urged on repressive 
measures more vehemently than ever before. Captain 
Elliot's letters reflect varied shades of hope and 
fear. The prospect of legalization was eagerly 
welcomed by him. He requested frequent visits of 
H.M. ships of war, as " calculated either to carry 
the provincial Government back to the system which 
has hitherto prevailed, or to hasten on the legalization 
measure from the Court." He thought that "the 
legalization of the trade in opium would afford his 
Majesty's Government great satisfaction," and added, 
" it cannot be good that the conduct of a great trade 
should be so dependent upon the steady continuance 
of a vast prohibited traffic in an article of vicious 
luxury, high in price, and liable to frequent and 
prodigious fluctuation." But soon the clouds 
gathered thickly again, and the glimmer of hope 
was extinguished. He sends despatch after despatch, 
enclosing edicts of the Chinese authorities denouncing 
and forbidding the opium-trade in the sternest terms, 
and requiring of him, as responsible for the foreign 



OPIUM POLICY OP THE BRITISH GOVERNMENT. 79 

merchants^ to send away the opium-ships stationed 
at Lintin. To the Chinese authorities he makes the 
lame excuse " that he sees only the papers of the 
British ships which arrive within the port, and he 
is therefore without any public means of knowing 
which of the ships resorting to those anchorages 
are British, what is the nature of their pursuit, 
whence they come, or whither they go." But to 
Lord Palmerston he writes a faithful account of the 
urgent position of affairs, describes in vivid terms 
the high-handed way in which the opium dealers 
were forcing the drug into the river in their own 
armed boats, and advises that a special commissioner 
should be sent with ships of war — for what ? That 
the representative of the British crown might not 
appear clothed with only the mock show of authority, 
made responsible in the eyes of the Chinese for 
disorders he was powerless to prevent? That he 
might clear the river of the desperadoes who were 
fast precipitating England into war P Alas t no. 
But "to explain that it was impossible for her 
Majesty to prevent the exportation of opium, and to 
urge the legalization of the trade." Captain Elliot 
seems to have been an honourable and a brave man, 
and to have acted with considerable caution and 
firmness in a very difficult situation. But the Indian 
revenue hung round his neck like a mill-stone. He 
coidd not be thoroughly honest in speech or action, 
because he knew that an honest policy was not 
expected of him by his superiors. He was there to 
keep things quiet, if possible, but not to interfere 



80 BRITISH OPIUM POLICY. 

with that illegal trade which ministered to the Indian 
revenue. As matters drew near to a crisis, he was 
driven to act, with or without authority, in any case 
without power. His predecessor, as we have seen, 
considered himself competent to stop the whole 
smuggling trade so far as British ships were con- 
cerned in it ; Captain Elliot now proved the empti- 
ness of the boast. The smuggling dep6t at Lintin 
he did not venture to assail, but made an attempt to 
stop the smuggling by armed European boats within 
the Bogue, only to find himself powerless. The 
opium dealers defied his injunction, and England's 
representative, superintendent of trade under Royal 
sign manual, officer of a power which was soon to 
devastate the Chinese empire with fire and sword 
from Canton to Nanking, was compelled to acknow- 
ledge to the governor of Canton his impotence to 
restrain the wretched riff-raff into whose hands the 
actual carrying of the smuggling trade in Canton 
waters had fallen. Was not this British policy too ? 
In after-times, the consul in each treaty port was 
armed with full power to deal with law-breakers in 
summary fashion, and the British fleet was there to 
support him. Similar power might and ought to 
have been given to the superintendents of trade^ 
when the East India Company's control ceased; 
and it is noteworthy that by the China Trade Act of 
1833 very large powers were conferred on her 
Majesty in Council to enable her to give the 
requisite authority to her representatives in China.' 

' " Hansard," third series, vol liii., p. 675. 



OPIUM POLICY OF THE BBinSH GOVERNMENT. 81 

But at this period it would never have done to 
invest a superintendent of trade with any actual 
physical power. Possibly an honest man might 
use it, and then what would become of the 
opium revenue ? Obviously it was not possible for 
the British Government formally to sanction and 
exempt from interference an illegal traffic. It was 
equally clear that occasions might arise when the 
superintendents might deem it indispensable to 
check the opium trade, for the honour of their 
country, and the safety of the lawful commerce ; as 
no doubt Captain Elliot would have checked it at 
this time if he could. This appointment of super- 
intendent with full power to give good advice and 
no power to enforce it, wears too much the appear- 
ance of design to be taken as altogether an oversight. 
In 1839 the crash came. The Chinese Imperial 
Commissioner, Lin, compelled the surrender to his 
Government of 20,291 chests of opium, worth 
over two millions sterling, all India-grown opium. 
This opium was entirely destroyed. Captain Elliot 
directed the surrender, " constrained by paramount 
motives affecting the safety of the lives and liberty 
of all the foreigners here present in Canton." Not 
a hair on the head of any European was injured ; 
not a finger was laid upon any individual. Lin 
simply drew a cordon round the foreign factories, 
withdrew the Chinese servants, stopped the supplies 
of food and water, and said, " I want that opium, 
and must have it." He might have tried wiser 
measures to get it ; it would have been much wiser 

G 



82 LRITISU OPIUM POUCY. 

not to get it at all, for its destruction was the 
kindest thing he could do for the East India Com- 
pany and the trade. The Company had already 
receiyed their revenue. The trade, already all but 
extinguished for four months, received an immense 
impulse after the incubus of this vast stock was 
removed. It was a blundering method of procedure, 
worthy of the arrogant agent of an Oriental despot. 
And yet, regarding it as an honestly meant effort to 
extinguish a terrible vice at any cost and risk, was 
not the destruction of that opium, after all, the 
grandest act in the whole history of British and 
Chinese intercourse; an act worthy of record in 
the same page with Britain's payment of twenty 
millions for the extinctioxi of slavery? There can 
be no question that Commissioner Lin was morally 
within his right in seizing that opium, though his 
method of doing so is open to objection. Every 
ounce of that opium was contraband, and was forfeit 
to the Emperor of China the moment it entered 
Chinese waters. Lin might have taken it by the 
strong hand, indeed, did take it by the strong 
hand, in a way which no doubt recommended it to 
himself for its effectual simplicity. There was no 
fighting, no bloodshed ; it does not appear that 'even 
one Englishman went without his dinner for a single 
day. To the Oriental mind, the fact that some 
innocent persons suffered a little temporary incon- 
venience along with the guilty would appear too 
trivial a matter to be noticed in the accomplishment 
of a grand act of justice. When we take into con- 



OPIUM POLICY OP THE BRITISH QOVEENMENT. 83 

sideration that the British Superintendent had con- 
fessed himself impotent to secure the execution of 
his own mandates, that the violation of Chinese laW 
had endured for a long course of years, and during 
the recent years in defiance of repeated expos- 
tulations, that ample warning had been given of the 
determination of China to bear the opium trade no 
longer, we cannot for very shame lay much stress 
upon the informality and arbitrariness of the Chinese 
method of procedure. 

The very ship that took Captain Elliot's despatch 
to England, announcing these events, returned with 
the news that the British Government had resolved 
to appeal to arms. 

The war which ensued is known in history as 
" the opium war." It was a war of such a character, 
that it is equally difficult either to express or repress 
our feelings of indignation and sorrow. In place of 
any expression of our own, take the sentence pro- 
nounced upon this war by Mr. Gladstone in his 
place in Parliament in 1840 : — " They gave you 
notice to abandon your contraband trade. When 
they found that you would not, they had a right to 
drive you fipom their coasts, on account of your 
obstinacy in persisting in this infamous and atro- 
cious traffic. You allowed your agent to aid and 
abet those who were concerned in carrying on that 
trade ; and I do not know how it can be urged as a 
crime against the Chinese that they refused pro- 
visions to those who refused obedience to their laws 
whilst residing within their territories. A war more 

r O 



84 BRITISH OnUM POLICY. 

unjust in its origin, a war more calculated to cover 
this country with permanent disgrace, I do not 
know, and I have not read of. The right hon. gen- 
tleman opposite spoke of the British flag waving in 
glory at Canton. That flag is hoisted to protect an 
infamous contraband traffic; and if it never were 
hoisted, except as it is now hoisted on the coast of 
China, we should recoil from its sight with horror. 
Although the Chinese were undoubtedly guilty of 
much absurd phraseology, of no little ostentatious 
pride, and of some excess, justice, in my opinion, is 
with them ; and whilst they, the Pagans, the semi- 
civilized barbarians, have it on their side, we, the 
enlightened and civilized Christians, are pursuing 
objects at variance both with justice and with 
religion."' 

Some persons protest against the phrase ^'the 
opium war." They allege that there were other 
causes of war, and that war must have occurred 
sooner or later had there been no opiimi trade. 
This may be granted. But after a review of tho 
events narrated above, it is clear that the war which 
actually occurred took its rise and received its moral 
character from the opium trade. In the words of 
Lord John Russell, the war was set afoot " to obtain 
reparation for insults and injuries ofl'ered to her 
Majesty's Superintendent and subjects; to obtain 
indemnification for the losses the merchants had 
sustained under threats of violence ; and, lastly, to 
get security that persons and property trading with 

• Vide ** Hansard/' third series, vol. liii., p. 818. 



OPIUM POLICY OP THE BRITISH GOVERNMENT. 85 

China should in future be protected from insult or in- 
jury." • What were the " insults and injuries " com- 
plained of ? Those that occurred in Lin's high-handed 
seizure of the opium. For what was the indemnity 
demanded P Principally for the opium destroyed. 
Nothing more is wanted than Lord John Russell's 
own description to brand the war as one caused by, 
and on behalf of opium ; though the use of the word 
is carefully avoided. The British statesman would 
naturally have preferred to regard the drug as some 
imknown article of commerce, an algebraic Xy and to 
fix the cause of dispute upon Lin's summary pro- 
ceedings. The historian cannot ignore facts in this 
way. Whatever we had to complain of in Commis- 
sioner Lin's behaviour, opium was the root of the 
whole matter. 

It will be instructive to quote here Williams' ' 
resume of the debate in Parliament upon the ques- 
tion of peace or war, — "It turned almost wholly 
upon the opium trade, and whether the hostilities 
had not proceeded from the want of foresight and 
precaution on the part of her Majesty's ministers. 
The speakers all showed ignorance of both prin- 
ciples and facts. Sir James Oraham asserted that 
the Governors of Canton had sanctioned the trade ; 
and Sir G. Staunton that it would not be safe for 
British power in India, if these insiilts were not 
checked, and that the Chinese had far exceeded, in 

• Ibid., vol. m., p. 1223. 

' "The Middle Kingdom," by S. Wells Williams. Vol. ii., 
p. 526. 



86 BRITISH OPIUM POLICY. 

their recent efforts, the previous acknowledged laws 
of the land I Dr. Lushington maintained that the 
connivance of the local rulers acquitted the smug- 
glers; while Sir John Hobhouse truly stated the 
reason why the Government had done nothing to 
stop the opium trade was that it was profitable; 
and Lord Melbourne, with still more fairness said, 
' We possess immense territories peculiarly fitted for 
raising opium, and though he would wish that the 
Government were not so directly concerned in the 
traffic, he was not prepared to pledge himself to 
relinquish it.' The Duke of Wellington thought 
the Chinese Government was insincere in its efibrts, 
and deserved little sympathy; and Lord Ellen- 
borough spoke of the million and a half sterling 
revenue * derived from foreigners,' which, if the 
opium monopoly was given up, and its cultivation 
abandoned, they must seek elsewhere. No one 
advocated the war on the ground that the opium 
had been seized, but the majority were in favour of 
letting it go on because it was begun. The debate 
was, in fact, a remarkable instance of the way in 
which a moral question is blinked, even by the most 
conscientious persona, when politics or interest comes 
athw.art its course." 

A detailed account of the military and naval 
operations would be out of place here, and we are 
glad to be spared the distressing narrative. Hor- 
rible as war is in any circumstances, there is never- 
theless a terrible fascination in the account of a 
great struggle between two mighty peoples, like 



OPIUM POLICY OF THE BRITISH GOVERNMENT. 87 

France and Germany, in whioh^ the hostile armies 
are not far from equally matched in discipline and 
arms. But it gives one a sickening sensation to 
read of the slaughter of mobs of Asiatics, armed 
with gingalls, and carrying bows and arrows, by the 
disciplined forces of Great Britain. During fourteen 
tedious months the contest moved slowly over 
fifteen hundred miles of sea-coast and inland river. 
Forts were bombarded, ships destroyed, cities cap- 
tured, and looted or held to ransom, thousands of 
Chinese soldiers were slain, and necessarily a vast 
amount of suflTering was inflicted upon non-com- 
batants. And, regarding the war as a fact by itself, 
apart from its causes, the most painful thought 
is, that this immense display of destructive energy 
was mostly wasted, as we have learnt since, and 
might have learnt long before. The same amount 
of force steadily directed against the capital would 
have attained the desired end, with the minimum of 
bloodshed. As it was, an incalculable amount of 
suffering was inflicted upon innocent people, who 
had no more responsibility for the grievances com- 
plained of, no more power to atone for them, than 
had the buffaloes which drew their ploughs ; and a 
second war had to be waged within twenty years to 
repair the mistakes of the first. 

In the subsequent treaty, the treaty "which 
opened China," no mention of opium was made, 
except the exaction of six millions of dollars in- 
demnity, for the 20,000 chests destroyed by Lin. 
The English Ambassador endeavoured to induce the 



88 BRITISH OPIUM POLICY. 

Chinese officials to legalize the opium traffic ;^ but no 
— their Emperor would not hear of it — ^his ministers 
did not dare to name the subject. Sir H. Pottinger 
was therefore compelled to abandon the proposal. 
After all the expenditure of blood and treasure, it was 
provoking to be obliged to leave the opium trade an 
acknowledged illicit traffic. But at once to do this, 
and in the same breath to compel the Chinese 
Government to pay for the destruction of confiscated 
contraband property, seems almost to surpass the 
reach of British inconsistency. We pride our- 
selves upon being a practical people, upon not being 
governed by ideas ; and certainly an amazing amount 
both of self-complacency and indifference to logic 
are needed to sustain a shock like this. Either we 
were in the right or in the wrong about opium. If 
in the right, we ought to have insisted upon the 
legalization. K in the wrong, how had we the 
face to make the Chinese pay for those 20,000 
chests P But people's notions of morality seem to 
have got bewildered by the drug. After the treaty 
was signed, the opium merchants actually proposed 
to send opium ships into the open ports, and to 
demand that the drug should be admitted on a five 
per cent. duty. It seems incredible, and yet no 
doubt it must have also been almost beyond the 
powers of comprehension of the opium merchants, 
that her Majesty's Government had fought for them, 
exacted indemnity for them, and then left them 

' Papers relating to the Opium Trade in China, 1842-56, 
pp. 1—3. Middle Kingdom, vol. ii., p. 569. 



/ 



OPIUM POLICY OF THE BRITISH GOVERNMENT. 89 

smugglers as before. And so Sir Henry Fottinger 
had to issue the following proclamation : ' — 

** It having been brought to my notice, that such 
a step has been contemplated as sending vessels 
with opium on board, into the ports of China to be 
opened by treaty to foreign trade, and demanding 
that the said opium shall be admitted to importation, 
in virtue of the concluding clause of the new 
tariff, which provides for all articles not actually 
enumerated in that tariff passing at an ad valorem 
duty of five per cent., I think it expedient, by this 
proclamation, to point out to all whom it may 
concern, that opium being an article, the traffic in 
which is well known to be declared illegal and con- 
traband by the laws and Imperial edicts of China, 
any person who may take such a step will do so at 
his own risk, and will, if a British subject, meet 
with no support or protection from her Majesty's 
Consuls, or other officers. 

**This proclamation will be translated and pub- 
lished in Chinese, so that no one may plead ignorance 
of it. 

'* Ood save the Queen I 

"Dated at the Government House, at Victoria, 
this 1st day of August, 1843. 

(Signed) "Henry Pottingbr." 

Still the old policy. You, British merchants, 
performing for our Government the useful office of 
collecting the East Indian revenue from Chinese 
pockets, remember we cannot protect nor support 

' China Repository for August, 1843, vol. xii., p. 446. 



90 BRITISH OPIUM POLICY. 

you : for what you do is distinctly illegal. But we 
know that you will do it, and do not intend to prevent 
you. That is the business of the Chinese Emperor. 
Another illustration of this policy is seen in 
the publication of an Order in Council, dated 
24th February, 1843,* forbidding British ships 
to violate the treaty by going to trade outside the 
treaty ports; but when Captain Hope, of her 
Majesty's ship "Thalia," stopped two or three 
opium-ships proceeding above Shanghai, he was 
recalled from his station, and ordered to India, where 
he could not "interfere in such a manner with the 
undertakings of British subjects.*'* The Chinese 
Government desisted from the struggle against 
opium, when the war had convinced them that 
England was resolved to force it at all costs. That 
this was their conviction (and after what had 
occurred, how could it be otherwise?) we know 
from their letter to Sir Henry Pottinger, making 
overtures for peace : " Our nations have been united 
by a friendly commercial intercourse for 200 years. 
How, then, at this time, are our old relations so 
suddenly changed, so as to be the cause of national 
quarrel ? It arises most assuredly from the spread- 
ing opium poison. Opium is neither pulse nor 
grain, and yet multitudes of our Chinese subjects 
consume it, wasting their property, and destroying 
their lives, and the calamities arising therefrom are 
unutterable ! How is it possible for us to refrain 
from forbidding our people to use it ?" This touch- 

* China Repository, vol. xiL, p. 446. 

* Williams' Middle Kingdom, vol. ii., p. 6H2. 



OPIUM POLICY OF TBK BRITISH GOVERNMENT. 91 

ing appeal must be regarded as the last free utter- 
ance of China as to opium. England ought then to 
have replied, disavowing in distinct terms any wish 
to force opium into China, ought to have engaged to 
do her part to prevent her subjects from any further 
illegal practices, ought to have renoimced the re- 
venue derived from these practices. England did 
none of these things, and China, down-trodden and 
bleeding, with the foot of the conqueror on her 
neck, could only think that, bad as the opium trade 
was, it was an evil which England was resolved to 
thrust upon her, and therefore to be tolerated as a 
lesser evil than an unequal war. 

One step had yet to be taken to make our British 
opium policy complete, viz. to secure the legali- 
zation of the traffic. This was achieved by Lord 
Elgin in the negotiations for a treaty of peace after 
the second Chinese war, commonly known as the 
" Lorcha " or " Arrow War," of 1857. That this 
legalization was not the spontaneous act of the 
Chinese is plain from the Blue-book; though, as 
we have only the views of our own side depicted 
there, it is impossible to discover from that source 
the degree of repugnance the Chinese statesmen felt, 
and the measure of opposition they offered. The 
Earl of Elgin sailed from England, bearing with him 
instructions from the Earl of Clarendon " to ascer- 
tion whether the Government of China would revoke 
its prohibition of the opium trade.' *• The treaty, 
which was signed on the 26th June of the next year, 

* Correspondence relating to the Earl of Elgin's Special 
Mission to China and Japan, 1857 — 1859, p. o. 



92 BRITISH OPIDli POLICY. 

contained no reference to opium, apparently because 
the Earl was ashamed to propose the subject.^ Two 
months later Lord Elgin concluded the first treaty 
between England and Japan, in which he put his 
signature to a clause expressly prohibiting the im- 
portation of opium.* 

In the month of September the plenipotentiary of 
the United States, Mr. W. B. Beed, addressed a 
long letter to Lord Elgin, arguing that the existing 
condition of things was the worst possible, that the 
local authorities of Shanghai had virtually legalized 
the trade by exacting a duty from it, and that the 
British Government ought either to abandon the 
trade or to procure its recognition by China. We 
can judge from the following paragraph which Mr. 
Beed beUeved to be the right course : — 

** But two courses are open for us to suggest and 
sustain — that of urging upon the Chinese authorities 
the active and thorough suppression of the trade by 
seizure and confiscation, with assurances that no 
assistance, direct or indirect, shall be given to 
parties, English or American, seeking to evade or 
resist the process; adding to this what, if your 
Excellency agrees with me as to the expediency of 

' " I haye more than once understood your Excellency to say 
that you had a strong, if not invincible, repugnance, involved as 
Great Britain already was in hostilities at Canton, and having 
been compelled in the north to resort to the influence of threatened 
coercion, to introduce the subject of opium to the Chinese 
authorities." — Letter of the U. S. Minister, Mr. Reed, to Lord 
Elgin. Ibid., p. 396. 

• Ibid,, p. 379. 



OPIUM POLICY OF THB BRITISH GOVBBNMENT. 93 

measures of repression, I am sure will be consonant 
with your personal conviction of what is right — ^the 
assurance of the disposition of your Grovemment to 
put a stop to the growth and export of opium from 
India. I may be permitted to suggest that perhaps 
no more propitious moment for so decisive and 
philanthropic a measure could be found than now, 
when the privileges of the East India Company, 
and what may be termed its active responsibilities, 
including the receipt and administration of the 
opium revenue, are about to be transferred to the 
Crown. I am confident my Government would do 
ready justice to the high motives which would lead 
to such a course, and rejoice at the result." ' 

Being unable to take notice of this suggestion. 
Lord Elgin was shut up to the second of the two 
courses put before him by Mr. Eeed, viz. to urge 
the Chinese to admit the drug into the tariff. This 
duty was discharged by Lord Elgin's delegates, 
Messrs. Oliphant and Wade, and their report * of the 
discussion with the Chinese delegates appointed to 
meet them makes it sufficiently clear that to the 
Chinese no real option was left. The proposition to 
legalize opium came from the English side, and the 
nearest approach to the appearance of voluntary 
consent on the part of the two Chinese delegates, 
which Messrs. Oliphant and Wade could put upon 
record, was, that Treasurer Wang admitted the 
necessity of a change; i.e. some change. The 
Chinese feeling appears plainly enough in the fol- 

• Ibid.^ p. 396. » Ibid., p. 400. 



94 BRITISH OPIUM POLICY. 

lowing passage of the report which records their 
view, a report given us, we must remember, by the 
opposite party : — " China BtUl retains her objection 
to the use of the drug on moral grounds, but the 
present generation of smokers, at all events, must 
and will have opium. To deter the uninitiated from 
becoming smokers, China would propose a very high 
duty ; but as opposition was naturally to be expected 
from us in that case, it should be made as moderate 
as possible "(!) Accordingly they proposed a duty of 
sixty taels a chest ; but the English delegates would 
agree to no higher than thirty; at which figure, 
therefore, opium was inserted in the tarifE. In 
1869, during the negotiations for revision of the 
treaty. Sir Rutherford Alcock and the Chinese 
statesmen agreed that the duty should be raised 
from thirty to fifty taels ; but her Majesty's Govern- 
ment refused to ratify the revised treaty, and the 
original treaty of Tientsin is still in force. 

At last, then, the long-coveted right was won. 
Henceforth the opium-merchant could openly intro- 
duce "the pernicious drug" through the Chinese 
custom-houses, which about this time were re- 
organized and placed under the control of an 
Enghshman ! The scandal of the illicit traffic is a 
thing of the past, and now surely the British and 
the Indian Governments may be allowed to share in 
the blessings of the blood-bought peace, and give 
thanks to heaven that they could extract their 
annual millions of revenue from the Chinese with a 
quiet conscience ! But conscience is a troublesome 



OPIUM POLICY OP THE BRITISH GOVERNMENT. 95 

thing ; before it can be satisfied we have to confront 
the allegation that we forced China to legalize the 
trade. The strong man knocks down the weak one, 
sets his foot upon his chest, and demands, '^ Will you 
give me the liberty to knock at your front door and 
supply your children with poison ad libitum ?'* The 
weak man gasps out from under the crushing 
pressure, "I will; I will; anything you please/* 
And the strong man goes home rejoicing that he is 
no longer under the unpleasant necessity of carrying 
on a surreptitious back-door trade. That the Chinese 
Government yielded only to physical force it will be 
our business to prove in the next chapter. Indeed, 
this has been sufficiently proved already, if to the 
preceding history we add the fact that as soon as 
the Chinese Government began to regain a little 
strength it renewed its protest against the opium. 
But this is anticipating. 

The history of British opium policy up to the 
present day is written. In 1832 a committee of 
the House of Commons deliberately stamped its 
character by resolving that " In the present state of 
the Indian revenue it does not appear advisable to 
abandon so important a source of revenue ; a duty 
upon opium being a tax which falls principally upon 
the foreign consumer." From the principle then laid 
down the British Government has never swerved. 
In 1832 the income from opium was less than a* 
million sterling out of a gross revenue of eighteen 
millions; in 1872 the net revenue from opium was 
more than seven millions and a half out of a gross 



96 BRITISH 0PIU51 POLICY. 

revenue of fifty millions. If the opium profits could 
not be dispensed with when they amounted to less 
than one-eighteenth of the total income, still less 
can they be spared when they are more than a 
seventh of the whole. A Government which deter- 
mines to perpetuate a lucrative iniquity until it is 
perfectly convenient to put an end to it, resolves in 
effect to uphold the iniquity until the day of judg- 
ment. 

A brief record of the attempts made in Parliament 
to overthrow this iniquity will fitly close this chapter. 
In 1843 Lord Ashley (the present Earl of Shaftes- 
bury) raised a vigorous protest in the House of 
Commons by moving the resolution :— 

*^ That it is the opinion of this House that the 
continuance of the trade in opium, and the monopoly 
of its growth in the territories of British India, is 
destructive of all relations of amity between England 
and China, injurious to the manufacturing interests 
of the country by the very serious diminution of 
legitimate commerce, and utterly inconsistent with 
the honour and duties of a Christian kingdom, and 
that steps be taken as soon as possible, with due 
regard to the rights of Government and individuals, 
to abolish the evil." * 

This resolution his lordship supported by an 
eloquence and an array of evidence which one would 
have thought irresistible. Among his supporters 
was Sir George Staunton, whose long official resi- 

• ** Hansard," third series, vol. Ixviii., 4lb April, 1843. 



OPIUM POLICY OP THE BRITISH GOVERNMENT. 97 

deuce in Canton, and acquaintance, then almost 
unique, with the Chinese language and literature, 
gave him an authority which was not diminished by 
the fact that Sir George was not generally opposed 
to our Government in favour of China. He said on 
this occasion, " 1 never denied the fact that if there 
had been no opium-smuggling there would have 
been no war. Even if the opium traffic had been 
permitted to run its natiu*al course, if it had not 
received an extraordinary impulse from the measures 
taken by the East India Company to promote its 
growth, which almost suddenly quadrupled the 
supply, I believe it never would have created that 
extraordinary alarm in the Chinese authorities, 
which betrayed them into the adoption of a sort of 
coup'd'etat for its suppression.'* And in reply to 
Mr. Baring, who contended that legalization was 
the only remedy, and announced the expectation of 
Government that the very next mail would bring 
news that the Emperor of China had consented to it. 
Sir George said: "In point of fact it is well known that 
the Chinese authorities could and did stop the traffic 
effectually for four months previous to the seizure of 
the opium ; that there was not a single chest sold 
for the whole of that period . . . I believe the fact to 
be that this traffic neither has been nor ever will be 
legalized in China." Sir Robert Peel, however, had 
more faith in Sir Henry Pottinger's bringing nego- 
tiations for legalization to a successful issue. We 
know the result; but at the time no doubt these 
confident expectations had great weight with the 

II 



98 BRITISH OPIUM POLICY. 

House. Sir Robert Peel deprecated hasty action, 
promised that her Majesty's ministers would take 
the subject into their cautious consideration, and 
asked the House to entrust the subject to them. 
Lord Ashley thereupon withdrew his motion. 

Fourteen years after this debate, and a few weeks 
previous to Lord Elgin's departure for the East, 
with special instructions to get the trade legalized, 
the Earl of Shaftesbury renewed the attack in the 
House of Lords, by moving that two important 
questions be submitted for the opinion of her 
Majesty's Judges. These were (1), whether it be 
lawful for the East India Company to derive a 
revenue from the cultivation of opium? and (2), 
whether it be lawful for the Company to prepare 
opium for the purpose of being smuggled into 
China ? The motion was withdrawn, but the Go- 
vernment itself undertook the task. The questions 
were submitted by the President of the Board of 
Control to four high legal authorities — ^the Queen's 
Advocate, the Attorney and Solicitor General, and 
the Company's standing counsel. And what were 
the answers ? In brief, yes, to the first question ; 
no, to the second : i. e. there was nothing in contra- 
vention of English law in the bare fact that the 
Company sold opium, but, to quote the ipmsima 
verba of this important opinion, "We think now 
that opium is made contraband by the law of China, 
and that its importation into China is made by 
Chinese law a capital crime, the continuance of the 
Company's practice of manufacturing and selling 



OPIUM POTJCY OF THE BEITISH GOVERNMENT. 99 

this opium in a form specially adapted to the 
Chinese contraband trade, though not an actual and 
direct infringement of the treaty, is yet at variance 
-with its spirit and intention, and with the conduct 
due to the Chinese Government by that of Great 
Britain as a friendly power, bound by a treaty which 
implies that all smuggling into China will be dis- 
countenanced by Great Britain." * These four emi- 
nent legal authorities, including the Compan/s own 
standing counsel among them, found that the East 
India Company were accomplices of smugglers ; and 
as such, were guilty of conduct tending to provoke 
breach of the peace between England and China. 
Indeed the facts were confessed, and the equity of 
the case is plain. The law condemns the receiver of 
stolen goods as well as the thief, the manufacturer 
of spurious coin as well as the utterer, and it must 
condemn the accomplice of smugglers as well as the 
smugglers themselves. If China had possessed the 
physical force of the United States, and could have 
got her grievances submitted to a Grand Court of 
Arbitration at Geneva or elsewhere in any year 
between 1842 and 1858, she might have recovered 
damages, compared with which the Alabama com- 
pensation would have looked small. But China 
was weak and ignorant, and the Earl of Shafles- 
bury*s motion for legal inquiry ended in the con- 
demnation of England and India by their own 
self-chosen judges, without the slightest step being 
taken to restrain them in their course of injustice. 

' Parliamentaiy Return, 24th August, 1867, vide Appendix. 

H 2 



100 BRITISH OPIUM POLICY. 

This arraignment of the Company before a legal 
tribunal came rather late, for next year their sceptre 
departed from them, and the legal offence ceased 
by Lord Elgin's introduction of opium into the 
tariff. Nothing remained but to assail the trade on 
a direct moral issue. This course was adopted by 
Sir Wilfred Lawson, who moved in the House of 
Commons in 1870, the resolution — 

" That this House condemns the system by which a 
large portion of the Indian revenue is raisedby opium." 

Again there was a gallant debate, with a formid- 
able array of arguments and evidence in support of 
the resolution. On the opposite side, though the 
ability of Mr. Grant Duff and the high authority 
and splendid powers of Mr. Gladstone were dis- 
played in defence of the revenue, we find nothing 
essentially new. Opium was classed with alcohol, 
and our taxation of the latter was urged in defence 
of the direct production of the former. But, as 
before, the importance of the revenue was the 
backbone of the resistance to Sir Wilfred Lawson. 
The House divided: forty-seven members followed 
Sir Wilfred Lawson, while one hundred and fifty- 
one voted with the Government.* 

* To complete the historj up to the date of publication, we may 
record here the latest debate in Parliament, raised last year (1875) 
bj Mr. Mark J. Stewart's motion : — ** That this House is of 
opinion that the Imperial policy regulating the opium traffic 
between India and China should be carefully considered by her 
Majesty's Government, with a view to the gradual withdrawal of 
the Government of India from the cultivation and manufacture of 
opium : " — in which the Government manifested the same deter- 
mination not to yield a jot of the old traditional policy. The votes 
were — for the Government ninety-four,for the resolution fifty-seven. 



OHAPTER V. 



CHINESE ANTI-OPIUM POLICY. 



From the commencement of the century to the 
present day the Chinese Imperial Government has 
persisted in prohibiting the practice of opium- 
smoking. Among ourselves, it is commonly held 
that the Government should restrict its functions as 
much as possible to the protection of life and pro- 
perty, and interfere as little as possible with the 
moral and religious concerns of the people. China, 
on the contrary, from time immemorial, has been 
accustomed to the idea of paternal government. 
Government has been looked upon as the most 
sacred and all-embracing of aU human duties. 
The sovereign, and under him, his ministers are 
personally responsible for the temporal and moral 
welfare of all under their sway. The most ancient 
of the Chinese books attest this conviction, as when 
the Conqueror T*ang, founder of the Shang dynasty 
(B.C. 1766), declared in a proclamation " when 
guilt is found anywhere in you who occupy the 
myriad regions it must rest on me." ' 

1 "Legge'g Chinese Classics," toI. iii., p. 189. 



102 BRITISH OPIUM POLICY. 

It is a result of this idea of the duties of Govern- 
ment that Chinese imperial and provincial decrees 
are composed in a homiletic style. They are 
sermons as well as laws, and indeed are expected 
to operate by the power of moral suasion, before the 
material penalties denounced are put in force. To 
an English reader unaccustomed to this hortatory 
style in the utterances of secular authority^ these 
wordy exhortations will scarcely escape seeming 
ludicrous. But the Chinese expect this good advice 
fix)m the ruling powers. Both governors and 
governed hold that the people must be instructed in 
their duties before legal penalties are inflicted. 
It is involved in this Chinese idea of a paternal 
rule, that the Government must always denounce 
and repress vice of all kinds with ceaseless rebukes 
and uncompromising penalties. The Duke of Chow's 
manifesto against drunkenness (b.o. 1115) is the 
most ancient extant of an innumerable succession 
of edicts against prostitution, gambling, opium- 
smoking, and immoraUties of every description. We 
smile at their pedagogical tone, and despise the 
executive inefficiency which made so many of these 
fulminations nothing better than firing blank 
cartridges ; nevertheless they effectually dispose of 
the accusation of hypocrisy frequently brought 
against the Chinese Government by defenders of the 
opium-trade, who have represented Chinese an- 
tagonism to opium-smoking as if it were an isolated 
and unprecedented fact in their history. 

The first imperial edict against opium-smoking, of 






CHINESE ANTI-OPIUM POLICY. 1Q3 

which we find record, was issued . by the Emperor 
Kia K*ing in the first year of this century. Opium- 
smoking is a modem vice, and its rise and progress 
synchronize with the increase of the trade under 
the patronage of the East India Company. Chinese 
medical works, of 300 years back, mention the drug 
as a remedy in cases of diarrhoea, dysentery, and 
other diseases. Where and when and by whom 
smoking as a luxury was commenced is hidden in 
obscurity. "Before the year 1767 the import of 
the Indian drug into China rarely exceeded 200 
chests; that year it amounted to 1000, at which 
rate it continued for many years." * It would not 
be an unreasonable conjecture that it was about 
that date that the practice of smoking originated. 
"In 1773 the British East India Company made a 
small adventure of opium from Bengal to China.''' 
In 1798-9 the import exceeded 4000 chests. The 
Report of the Governor of the two Kwang provinces 
in 1836 states : " Now in regard to opium, it is an 
article brought into the Central Empire from the 
lands of the far-distant barbarians, and has been im- 
ported during a long course of years. In the reigns 
of Yung Ching and K*ien Lung (a.d. 1723—1795) it 
was included in the tariff of maritime duties, under 
the head of medicinal drugs, and there was then no 
regulation against purchasing it or inhaling it." In 
1779 the then Governor of Kwang Tung presented 
a memorial to Eia E^ing, the fifth ancestor of the 

' Phipps, '* China and £astem Trade," p. 208. 
' Chinese Repository, vol. v., p. 658. 



104 BRITISH OPIUM POLICY. 

reigning Emperor, which produced the imperial 
decree referred to above. In 1800 the importation 
of opium was prohibited, and smokers were threat- 
ened with punishment. Successive decrees in- 
creased this punishment to transportation and 
strangling. Now since the importation did not 
reach so high as 5000 chests in any year before 1820, 
it is plain that up to that time the Chinese Govern- 
ment could only have been actuated by a sincere 
concern for the moral welfare of its subjects. The 
drain of silver which caused alarm to the financialists 
when the import was near 50,000 chests could 
hardly have been subject of anxiety when it did not 
reach to a tenth of that amount. 

The moral weight of the Chinese Government's 
antagonism to opium-smoking was undoubtedly 
weakened by the ease and regularity with which the 
import was effected during a long course of years 
by means of an established and well-understood 
system of bribery. It was not until 1837 that 
really vigorous efforts were put forth to extinguish 
the practice, and not until 1838 that the foreign 
importers of the opium were directly attacked. The 
immunity of nearly forty years bred a sense ot 
security in the minds of the opium-smugglers. 
Nay, so quiet and regular was the trade for long 
periods (though not without some serious interrup- 
tions), and so uniform the scale of fees for bribing 
the officials, that they chose to ignore altogether 
the fact that they were smugglers, and felt them- 
selves seriously aggrieved when at last the long- 



CHINESE ANTI-OPIUM POLICY. 1U5 

slumbering authorities awoke to action. Looking 
at the subject with English eyes, it is impossible 
to refrain from grave censure of the Chinese official 
imbecility and corruption. But the student who 
looks at the matter not with the eyes of a Euro- 
pean but as surveyed from the interior, witli 
Chinese eyes as it ^ere, will not argue from this 
remissness of the executive that the Government 
was insincere in its opposition. A "paternal" 
Government, which takes the morals of 300,000,000 
subjects under its care, must wink at a good many 
irregularities. In such a numerous family, it is not 
to be expected that all the children will be good 
boys and girls. The edicts against vice are often 
held in abeyance, kept suspended in terrormn over 
the heads of transgressors, but not at all times put 
into execution with equal vigour. The difficulty of 
securing honest administrators of the laws is well 
known, and this defect of their political system 
compels the central authority to shut its eyes to 
many evasions of the law. But this does not do 
away with the law, nor argue any want of sincerity 
in its promulgation. The memorial of Ohoo Tsun,* 
represents the feeUngs of the Chinese very fairly 
when it says : " It has been represented, that 
advantage is taken of the laws against opium by 
extortionate underlings and worthless vagrants, to 
benefit themselves. Is it not known then, that 

* Choo Tsun was Cabinet Minister in the reign of Taon-EIwang. 
The memorial is translated in the Chinese Correspondence of 
1840, p. 168. 



106 BitlTISH OPIUM POUOY. 

where the Grovernment enacts a law, there is 
necessarily an infraction of that law P And though 
the law should sometimes be relaxed, and become 
ineffectual, yet surely it should not on that account 
be abolished ; any more than we would cease eating 
because of disease of the throat. When have not 
prostitution, gambling, treason, robbery, and such- 
like infractions of the laws, afforded occasions for 
extortionate underlings and worthless vagrants 
to benefit themselves, and by falsehood and bribery 
to amass wealth? Of these there have been 
frequent instances; and as any instance is dis- 
covered, punishment is inflicted. But none surely 
would contend that the law, because in sucli 
instances rendered ineffectual, should therefore bo 
abrogated I The laws that forbid the people to do 
wrong may be likened to the dykes which prevent 
the overflowing of water. If any one, then, urging 
that the dykes are very old, and therefore useless, 
we should have them thrown down, what words 
could express the consequences of the impetuous 
ruin and all-destroying overflow 1" 

Choo Tsun was right ; to the Chinaman, the law 
as a protest of the Government is, to a certain 
extent, a practical barrier against vice. When 
temporarily inoperative it does not grow obsolete, 
but retains its vitality as a witness against evil. 

The habit of opium-smoking was held in check 
from 1800 to 1837, by statutes which seemed 
inoperative to foreign eyes. Nor is it true that 
this period did pass by without enforcement of the 



CHINESE ANTI-OPIUM POLICY. 107 

law against native offenders, some instances of 
which produced temporary consternation among 
the foreign dealers.* We have seen already that 
as regards the foreigners they were compelled 
to remove their stocks of opium outside the 
limits within which the recognized trade was 
carried on. Still we cannot deny that the 
facility and security of the illicit trade during 
a long course of years was calculated to deceive 
foreigners as to the real sentiments of the Chinese 
Qovernment. Whatever spasmodic attempts were 
made to deter the native from buying and usinp; 
opium, the foreign merchants were not molested. 
Their great wealth, and the power the lucrative- 
ness of the trade gave them of bribing to any 
extent required, will of itself account for this. 
Besides, it is plain enough that, for all their 
grandiloquent boasting and affected contempt for 
this handful of barbarians, the mandarins stood in 
awe of the unknown but formidable resources of the 
nations of Europe. They postponed laying a finger 
upon them to the last possible moment. When at 
last imperative orders from Peking compelled them 
to attack the source of the smuggling trade, our 
virtuous and honourable British merchants took 
the interference in extreme dudgeon, affected to 
believe that non-molestation for over thirty years 

* Phipps recounts several instances between 183 1 and 1834, 
one, '* a verj extensive seizure of ninetj-six chests of Patna and 
Benares opium in sight of the shipping at Lintin.*' See *' China 
and Eastern Trade," pp, 212—215. 



108 BRITISH OPIUM POLICY. 

actually gave them a right to break the law ; and 
complained of its enforcement as an intolerable 
grievance I 

It was not true, however, that the determined 
attack on the trade, which led to the opium war of 
1840, burst upon the merchants without warning. 
So far previously as the beginning of 1832 an edict 
was issued to the Hong merchants, giving a graphic 
and faithful description of the illicit trade, and 
exhorting the foreigners to discontinue their evil 
practices. It cannot be pretended that the mer- 
chants did not receive this communication, for a 
translation of it was published that same year, in 
an English newspaper, printed in Canton. It is a 
fair specimen of the Chinese style of thought and 
expression in such documents : — 

** Opium is a spreading poison, inexhaustible ; its 
injurious effects are extreme. Often has it been 
severely interdicted, as appears on record. But of 
late, the various ships of barbarians which bring 
opium all anchor about at Lintin in the outer 
ocean, and, exclusive of cargo ships, there are 
appointed barbarian ships, in which opium is de- 
posited and accumulated, and there it is sold by 
stealth. That place is in the midst of the great 
ocean, and it is accessible from every quarter. Not 
only do traitorous banditti of this province go 
thither, and in boats make clandestine purchases, 
but from many places in various provinces vessels 
come by sea, under pretence of trading to Lintin ; 
and in the dark buy opium dirt, which they set 



CfllNESB ANTI-OPIUM POLICY. 109 

sail with, and cany off ; as for example, from Amoy , 
Ningpo, Tientsin, &c. 

*'At present some one in the capital has repre- 
sented the affair to the Emperor, and strict orders 
have been respectfully received from his Majesty to 
investigate, consult, and exterminate by cutting off 
the sources of the evil. I, the Cabinet Minister 
and Governor, have met and consulted with the 
Lieutenant-Grovemor, &c 

" An order is hereby issued to the Hong merchants, 
that they may forthwith obey accordingly. They 
are commanded to expostulate with earnestness, and 
persuade the barbarians of the several nations, 
telling them that hereafter, when coming to Canton 
to trade, they must not on any account bring opium 
concealed in the ships' holds, nor appoint vessels to 
be opium depdts at Lintin in the outside ocean, hoping 
to sell it by stealth. If they dare intentionally to 
disobey, the moment it is discovered, positively shall 
the said barbarian ships have their hatches sealed, 
their selling and buying put a stop to, and an 
expulsion inflicted, driving them away to their own 
country ; and for ever after they shall be disallowed 
to come to trade, that thereby punishment may be 
manifested. On this affair a strict interdict has 
been respectfully received from Imperial authority, 
and the Hong merchants must honestly exert their 
utmost efforts to persuade to a total cutting off of 
the clandestine introduction of opium dirt. Let 
there not be the least trifling or carelessness, for if 
opium be again allowed to enter the interior it will 



110 BRITISH OPIUM POLICY. 

involve them in serious criminality. Oppose not ! 
These are commands." 

Of course it seemed absurd to the Jardines and 
Dents of that day that the Chinese mandarins should 
expect them to abandon a trade by which they were 
making princely fortunes simply in response to 
moral suasion. Of course they affected to regard it 
as a proclamation put out to hoodwink the Imperial 
authority, but not meant to have any practical 
result. All the more astonished were they when at 
a later time a Chinese mandarin dealt with the 
opium question au grand serieuXf and they had to 
give up their opium to save their lives. But even 
in this year, 1832, seven years before the catas- 
trophe, they could not deny they were fairly warned, 
that the illegal and dishonourable character of their 
proceedings was pointed out in plain terms. 

To avoid the semblance of an undue leaning to 
the Chinese side, it may be necessary again to 
remind the reader that a defence of the Imperial 
anti-opium policy by no means impUes an admira- 
tion of the whole of the Chinese treatment of 
foreigners and foreign trade. A student of Chinese 
history and literature will make many excuses for 
their unreasonable and provoking manner of dealing 
with the strangers from the far west visiting their 
shores. It would be unreasonable on our part to 
demand that the prejudices of 4000 years should be 
laid aside in a day upon the first appearance of a 
new piece of bunting on the verge of the horizon. 
The Chinese literati, the governing class, were 



CHINESE ANTI-OPIUM POLICY. Ill 

pedantic, conceited, arrogant, and vexatious. In 
some matters they were palpably unjust. But they 
were only what we might have expected to find 
them; and they did not invite us, we forced our- 
selves upon them. This essay, however, has nothing 
to do with the general intercourse of Chinese and 
Europeans, nor is it concerned to deny that through- 
out the century preceding the opium struggle there 
were good grounds for serious complaints against 
the Chinese officials. Our business is with opium, 
and in this matter, although the Chinese Go- 
vernment committed some diplomatic blunders, we 
cannot but acknowledge and admire the spirit of 
wise and philanthropic antagonism to a ruinous 
vice which animated the sovereign and his advisers ; 
a spirit of altogether a higher order than the selfish 
worldly wisdom of their mighty but unscrupulous 
opponents. 

The splendid though unsuccessful efibrt of the 
Chinese Government to extinguish the opium traffic 
must now be briefly recounted fi^om the Chinese 
side. In 1836 Heu Naetse, who had held official 
positions in Canton, addressed a lengthy memorial 
to the Emperor,* describing the opium-smuggUng 
trade after the style of the edict above quoted, and 
dwelling upon the impossibility of coping with it. 
He therefore recommended that the trade should be 
legalized, opium being admitted as a medicinal drug 
under duty, as in K*ien Lung's time. Not that he 
thought the smoking a harmless practice, for he 

• China Correspondence, 1840, p. 156. 



112 BRITISH OPIUM POLICY. 

recommended that all officials, scholars, and soldiers 
should be prohibited from indulging in the habit; 
but simply because the smuggling trade was carried 
on entirely by exchange of silver for the drug, in 
consequence of which China was being drained of 
its bullion. This memorial was sent down by the 
Council of State to the officials at Canton for 
them to consider and report upon. The provincial 
mandarins reported in favour of legislation. But 
meantime Choo Tsun ' and a censor, Hii Kiu," 
strongly opposed the temporizing policy. The 
memorial of the latter mentioned the names of 
several merchants, English, vParsee, and American, 
who were well known as engaged in the unlawful 
traffic. These memorials occupied the attention of 
the Grovemment for more than a year. Though 
China has no representative government, no public 
debates, no newspapers, it would be a grand error 
to imagine that pubUc opinion has no weight there. 
Probably no country in the world has recognized 
more distinctly that the satisfaction of the people is 
the only complete justification of a policy, the 
only sure support of a government. China is a 
* despotism, but not a military despotism. It is a 
despotism by sufferance of the people. The reigning 
dynasty stands, while it governs sufficiently well to 
be tolerable to the coimtry. It falls, and expects to 
fall, when it ceases to possess the moral support of 
the masses. Vox populi^ vox Dei, has its Chinese 

' Ibid., p. 168. • Ibid,, p. 1 73. 



CHINESE ANTI-OPIUM POLICY. 113 

equivalent in the classic saying, ** Heaven sees as 
the people see, hears as the people hear/' To 
suppose that the Emperor Taou Kwang's opposition 
to opium was the benevolent craze of a well-meaning 
but ill-informed autocrat, legislating against, or 
without taking account of, the popular wish, would 
be a tremendous blunder. Taou Kwang and his 
ministers took, in Chinese fashion, the sense of the 
Empire on the opium question. The chief autho- 
rities of the provinces had the proposition to legalize 
opium laid before them, and were commanded to 
send reports on it to Peking. In the capital those 
remarkable functionaries, the Censors, privileged to 
criticize and exhort the Son of Heaven himself, 
and bound to give impartial statements on all 
important subjects, contributed their evidence as to 
the state of public opinion. The official class in 
China takes its tone of political thought and feeling 
from the educated gentry. The opinion of the 
educated gentry is the public opinion of the country, 
for the masses are not independent enough to do 
other than reflect the opinion of their superiors. 
Hence the issue of these inquiries instituted by the 
Court fairly represented the national mind. If China 
were polled to-day there is no doubt that the great 
mass of the people would be found to approve the 
anti-opium poUcy ; and among the votaries of the 
pipe, who best know its fascinations and its curse, a 
large number would join in the wish that the drug 
had been efiectually excluded. We question whether 
the history of the world has ever seen an Imperial 

I 



1]4 BBITISH OPIUM POUOY. 

policy more truly a national policy than this Chinese 
interdiction of opium. 

Before the Imperial Council came to a final 
decision the Canton Government was directed in the 
meantime to enforce the existing edicts. Conse- 
quently the opium ships were again ordered to 
depart from the coast. Nine foreigners, EngUsh, 
Parsees, and Americans, residing at Canton, noto- 
riously engaged in the opium traffic, who were 
mentioned by name in three edicts, were peremp- 
torily ordered to leave the country. These nine 
persons treated the order with contempt. This is 
not surprising. The Chinese Government did not 
yet use force ; and when did smugglers bow to any 
other argument P But it is surprising that Captain 
Elliot could write to Lord Palmerston that if the 
Chinese attempted to enforce this decree of expul- 
sion, his interference on behalf of the British 
merchants would become indispensable on account of 
the great injury they and their constituents would 
suffer! It shows how long habit, uninterrupted 
success, and great wealth had blinded the eyes of 
the British community in Canton to the criminal 
character of their pursuit. We have seen that one 
superintendent wrote home that it was absurd to 
call the opium trade smuggling, because the Chinese 
authorities connived at it. Now another superin- 
tendent writes that he must employ his influence 
as representative of Great Britain to protect the 
smugglers, because the Chinese authorities no longer 
connive at their doings! We find a clue to this 



CHINESE ANTI-OPIUM POLICY. 115 

confused sense of right and wrong in the evidence 
whidh Mr. Jardine afterwards gave before a Com- 
mittee of the House of Commons. Being asked 
whether he was ever troubled with doubts about the 
morality of the trade, he replied that " when the 
East India Company were growing and selling it, 
and there was a declaration of the Houses of Lords 
and Commons, with all the bench of bishops at 
their back, that it was inexpedient to do it away, 
I think our moral scruples need not have been 
so very great."* The British Government threw 
the responsibility upon the Government of India; 
the Indian Government cast it upon the opium 
merchants; the opium merchants shoved it back 
upon both the preceding. All parties quieted 
their consciences by pointing to the connivance of 
the Chinese officials ; the marvel is that when this 
connivance ceased and active opposition took its 
place. Captain Elliot and the merchants should 
have clung so persistently to their old notions, and 
have resolved to set China at defiance ! 

After full inquiry according to the accustomed 
methods, the Imperial Council resolved to reject Heu 
Naetse's advice, and to extinguish the opium trade 
altogether. Foreigners raised a cry that the Chinese 
Government was hypocritical in pretending to care 
for the weal of the people, and that its only real ob- 
jection was to the exportation of bullion in exchange 
for the drug. From that day to this defenders of the 
trade have never been weary of exclaiming against 

* Report, Select Committee on China Trade, 1840, p. 100. 

1 2 



116 BRITISH OPIUM POLICT. 

the insincerity of the Chinese. But the charge on the 
face of it is absurd. If the loss of silver had been 
the only or chief objection to the trade, the Chinese 
would have adopted Heu*s plan, proposed to meet 
that very difficulty. There is no reason for denying 
that the Chinese statesmen were alarmed to see the 
precious metals flowing out of the country ; but this 
consideration was almost lost sight of by them in the 
overwhelming moral objections to the traffic. 

The edicts requiring the opium ships, and the 
chief opium dealers to depart the country, being 
utterly disregarded by the foreigners; and they 
persisting in the smuggling trade, now no longer 
carried on in native but in foreign craft, what could 
the Chinese do ? They had made the Hong 
merchants securities for the foreign traders, but 
these Chinese merchants were palpably unable to 
control their foreign friends. In 1838, seizures of 
opium from foreign boats were made once and again, 
in one case right under the foreign factories. The 
Hong merchants waited upon the foreigners and 
entreated them to stop the trade, but, of course, in 
vain. At last, in December, twelve boxes of opium 
were seized in broad daylight while being landed in 
front of the factories. The Governor now urged 
the Hong merchants to the utmost verge. He 
required the immediate expulsion of the ship from 
which this opium came, though it seems he was 
wrongly informed as to its name. He demanded 
the expulsion of the man, a British merchant named 
Innes, a man who, on another occasion, actually 



CHINESE ANTI-OPIUM POLICY. 117 

proposed to levy private war upon the Chinese 
Government to avenge some real or fancied injustice, 
and had to be reminded by Lord Palmerston that 
if he did, he would be liable to be dealt with as a 
pirate. The ship was the wrong ship. The man 
was the right man. It made no difference, however. 
Neither man nor ship would move. The Hong 
merchants used all their influence with the foreign 
merchants ; but the Canton Chamber of Commerce 
replied they had no power to expel individuals nor 
to check the smuggling trade. The Hong merchants, 
in despair, threatened to close the trade, no longer 
to rent their houses to foreigners, and to pull Mr. 
Innes* house about his ears, if he did not go. The 
Chamber of Commerce replied in efiect that an 
Englishman's house is his castle, and that the Hong 
merchants must on no account dare to infringe the 
sacred principle. One of the Hong merchants was 
publicly exposed wearing the cangue, or as we should 
say, in the pillory. The Governor might have pro- 
ceeded to severer punishments, but the inability of 
these unfortunate men to control the stubborn 
foreigners was too evident. 

Next the Governor resolved to give the foreigners 
an ocular proof of the consequences of their trade. 
The penalty of dealing in opium was death. One 
Ho Laoukin lay under sentence. The Governor 
ordered that he should be executed in front of the 
foreign factories. An officer, followed by a few 
lictors, brought the criminal to the appointed spot, 
and began to erect the wooden stage against which 



118 . BRITISH OPitM POLICY. 

he was to be strangled. The foreigners hurried out 
upon hearing what was intended, and drove him off 
the ground. The officer submitted, and performed 
the execution elsewhere. But the mob poured in, 
took possession of the square, and for a few hours 
there seemed likelihood of a horrible massacre. The 
mob had begun pulling down a house, when the 
district magistrate arrived upon the scene, attended 
by a handful of soldiers, and quelled the riot. 
Captain Elliot wrote to Lord Palmerston in indig- 
nant terms about this shameful attempt to make the 
foreign factories an execution-ground ; but his lord- 
ship failed to see what right the merchants had to 
interfere with the Chinese Government in the execu- 
tion of its own laws, on its own soil. Had the 
Chinese Government persisted in this plan, it would 
have been a novel way of fighting the opium traffic. 
How long could the wholesale dealers in the smuggled 
drug have endured to see their Chinese brethren of 
the retail trade strangled before their eyes daily! 
Such horrid spectacles frequently repeated under 
their windows might have taken away their appetite 
for their meals, and so have starved them into sub- 
mission, as effectually as Lin did. Subsequently 
the Chinese carried out another execution on the 
very spot. But this satisfied the Government for 
the time. 

Li the spring of 1839 the Imperial Special Com- 
missioner, Lin, formerly Governor of Hu Ewang, 
came to Canton armed with dictatorial power to put 
a final end to the iniquitous traffic. A few days 



CHINESE ANTE-OPIUM POLIOT. 119 

alter his arrival he issued a peremptory demand for 
the surrender of all the opium at Lintin and the 
other anchorages. The merchants offered a thou- 
sand chests, as' a sop to pacify him. But he must 
have the whole. Troops were collected, the river 
was blockaded. Everything showed a spirit of 
determination such as the illicit dealers never 
expected to see in the despised Chinese authorities. 
Captain Elliot and the merchants professed to fear 
for their lives, though the worst they actually 
suffered was the inconvenience of losing their 
servants. The 20,000 chests were delivered up and 
destroyed. No doubt the seizure would not have 
held good in courts where John Doe and Richard 
Boe appear upon the pleadings ; but the scene was 
China, not England. Lin was acting by what we 
may call martial law. Those opium dealers had no 
legal rights in China, they had for a long course of 
years inflicted illegal wrongs. Idn made a great 
mistake in his method of proceeding, because of his 
entire ignorance of foreign nations ; but he acted 
according to the best of his judgment. He dealt 
what was meant to be, and what ought to have been, 
an annihilating blow to the traffic. When that 
immense amount of valuable property was poured 
into the sea, China delivered her loudest protest 
against the guilty trade, and did the utmost that 
lay in her power to extinguish it for ever. 

The great effort was a failure. One cannot but 
regret that the Chinese ignorance of diplomacy 
prevented the statesmen who had given such signal 



120 BErnsH opium polict. 

proofs of their hostility to opium from continuing 
the struggle in ways more likely to have been 
successful. Lin published among his own people 
two long letters to the Queen of England, which, if 
duly forwarded through the proper oflBicial channel, 
could not have failed to produce a practical result.* 
This indeed was the fatal fault of the Chinese policy. 
Their Government obstinately declined all oflBicial 
communication with the nations of the West, until 
forced upon them at the sword's point. We have 
seen how the British Government resolutely ignored 
the opium smuggling for thirty years. The British 
Government will not protect illicit traflSc, was the 
consistent utterance of all that period. We have 
seen how the high legal advisers of the Crown and 
the East India Company, condemned their prepara- 
tion of opium for the smuggling-trade as illegal. 
One can hardly doubt that if China had tried peace- 
ful and direct negotiation with the British Govern- 
ment, instead of persisting in shutting her eyes to all 
the outside world, and scolding the Hong merchants, 
the issue would have been greatly diflferent. 

But at least the Chinese have been consistent. 
Humbled and vanquished, the Emperor Tao Kwang 
is reported to have made this reply to the proposi- 
tion for legalizing the traflic, made by Sir H. 
Pottinger. " It is true, I cannot prevent the intro- 
duction of the flowing poison; gainseeking and 
corrupt men will for profit and sensuality defeat my 
wishes; but nothing will induce me to derive a 

* Vide Appendix. 



CHINESE ANTI-OPIUM POLICY. 121 

revenue from the vice and misery of my people." 
Thus, though victors in the physical contest, we 
were morally defeated. The noble inflexibility of 
the heathen Monarch made it palpably evident, that 
in the whole preceding struggle England was in the 
wrong. 

Has the Chinese anti-opium policy undergone a 
change? This is a most important question. We 
have heard the indignant condemnation which Mr. 
Gladstone pronounced upon the opium war; and 
yet, in 1870, Mr. Gladstone condescended to 
apologize for the existing opium trade. Doubtless 
he did so under the impression that the character 
of the trade had changed. In this, however, he 
was entirely mistaken. Its S<mn, has changed, for 
it is a legalized, instead of a contraband traffic. Its 
moral character is unchanged, because the Chinese 
objection to the traffic is unchanged, and the legality 
given to the trade was granted under influence of 
fear. We must now produce evidence for this. 

The first proof that legalization of the traffic does 
not indicate any change in the policy of the Govern- 
ment consists in the fact that the old edicts against 
the use of the drug are not repealed, though allowed 
to sleep for awhile. But this sleep is not so pro- 
found, but that even recently there have been active 
attempts to resist the vice. Dr. Dudgeon, in his 
report of the Peking Hospital for 1869, says, — 

*'In the capital, stringent regulations are now 
and again put in force against opium-smoking; as 
for example, when some great crime or calamity, 



122 BRITISH OPIUM POLICY. 

an atrocious murder, or a great conflagration takes 
place, or on the accession of new officials to office. 
The sale of the drug in the Tartar city, at the end 
of last year, after the death of the lieutenant- 
governor and installation of his successor, has 
been strictly prohibited. Many sellers, and a few 
smokers, had their goods distrained, and they 
themselves cast into prison for two months. To 
the reigning family it seems of paramount import- 
ance to keep the Manchus from this vice ; but 
notwithstanding all their exertions and vigilance, 
the vice is growing and extending among these 
lazy pensioners and soldiers. 

But it is in the despatches and evidence of Sir 
E. Alcock, recently her Majesty's representative at 
Peking, that we have the most striking testimony 
to China's unchanged hostility to the opium trade. 
Under date, Peking, May 20, 1869,* the ambassador 
addressed the Earl of Clarendon, giving a lengthy 
report of an interview between himself and three 
ministers of the Foreign Board of Peking. In the 
course of the discussion. Sir Eutherford had acculsed 
the Chinese literati of being actuated by a hostile 
animus towards foreigners. The Chinese ministers 
at first disputed the fact, but, — "In the end, 
Wen-Seang shifted his ground; and asked how 
could it be otherwise? They had often seen 
foreigners making war on the country; and then^ 
agaiUf how irreparable and continuous was the injury 

' Correspondence respecting the revision of the Treaty of 
Tientsin, p. 396. 



CHINESE ANTI-OPIUM POLICY. 123 

which they saw inflicted upon the whole Empire by the 
foreign wiporiation of opium! K England would 
consent to interdict this — cease either to grow it in 
India, or to allow their ships to bring it to China — 
there might be some hope of more friendly feelings. 
No donbt there was a very strong feeling enter- 
tained by all the literati and gentry, as to the 
frightfiil evils attending the smoking of opium, its 
thoroughly demoralizing effects, and the utter ruin 
brought upon all who once gave way to the vice. 
They believed the extension of this pernicious habit 
was mainly due to the alacrity with which foreigners 
supplied the poison for their own profit, perfectly 
regardless of the irreparable . injury inflicted, and 
naturally they felt hostile to all concerned in such 
a traffic .... If England ceased to protect 
the trade, it could then be effectually prohibited by 
the Emperor; and it would eventually cease to 
trouble them, while a great cause of hostility and 
distrust in the minds of the people would be 
removed." 

The interview here reported was succeeded by a 
formal note from the Chinese Government which 
amounts to a distinct application to the British 
Government to give up the legalized importation 
and permit China to return to the former system. 
This document is of such immense importance to the 
present condition of the question, that we must 
print it entire.* 

"From Tsungli Yamen to Sir R. Alcock, July, 

' Report, East India Finance, 1871, p. 268. 



124 BRITISH OPIUM POLICY. 

1869. The w^riters have on several occasions, when 
conversing with his Excellency, the British Minister, 
referred to the opium trade as being prejudicial to 
the general interests of commerce. 

" The object of the treaties between our respective 
countries was to secure perpetual peace; but, if 
effective steps cannot be taken to remove an 
accimulating sense of injury from the minds of 
men, it is to be feared that no policy can obviate 
sources of future trouble. Day and night the 
writers are considering the question, with a view to 
its solution, and the more they reflect upon it, the 
greater does their anxiety become, and hereon 
they cannot avoid addressing his Excellency very 
earnestly on the subject, 

*' That opium is like a deadly poison, that it is 
most injurious to mankind, and a most serious pro- 
vocative of ill-feeling is, the writers think, perfectly 
well known to his Excellency, and it is, therefore, 
needless for them to enlarge farther upon these 
points. The Prince and his colleagues are quite 
aware that the opium trade has long been con- 
demned by England as a nation, and that the 
right-minded merchant scorns to have to do with 
it. But the oflBicials and people of this Empire, 
who cannot be so completely informed on this 
subject, all say that England trades in opium 
because she desires to work China's ruin, for (say 
they) if the friendly feelings of England are genuine, 
since it is open to her to produce and trade in 
everything else, would she still insist on spreading 



CHINESE ANTI-OPIUM POLICT. 125 

the poison of this hurtful thing through the 
Empire ? 

" There are those who say, stop the trade by en- 
forcing a vigorous prohibition against the use of 
the drug. China has the right to do so, doubtless, 
and might be able to effect it; but a strict en- 
forcement of the prohibition would necessitate the 
taking of many lives. Now, although the criminals* 
punishment would be of their own seeking, 
bystanders would not fail to say that it was the 
foreign merchant seduced them to their ruin by 
bringing the drug, and it would be hard to prevent 
general and deep-seated indignation ; such a course 
indeed, would tend to arouse popular anger against 
the foreigner. 

" There are others again who suggest the removal 
of the prohibitions against the growth of the poppy. 
They argue that as there is no means of stopping 
the foreign (opium) trade, there can be no harm, as 
a temporary measure, in withdrawing the prohibition 
on its growth. We should thus not only deprive 
the foreign merchant of a main source of his profits, 
but should increase our revenue to boot. The sove- 
reign rights of China are indeed competent to this ; 
such a course would be practicable, and indeed the 
writers cannot say that, as a last resource, it will 
not come to this ; but they are most unwilling that 
such prohibition should be removed, holding, as they 
do, that a right system of government should appre- 
ciate the beneficence of Heaven, and (seek to) 
remove any grievance which afflicts its people, while 



126 BRITISH OPIUM FOLIC V. 

to allow them to go on to destruction, although an 
increase of revenue may result, will provoke the 
judgment of Heaven, and the condemnation of 
men. 

" Neither of the above plans are indeed satisfactory. 
If it be desired to remove the very root, and to stop 
the evil at its source, nothing will be effective but a 
prohibition, to be enforced alike by both parties. 

" Again, the Chinese merchant supplies your coun- 
try with his goodly tea and silk, conferring thereby 
a benefit upon her ; but the English merchant em- 
poisons China with pestilent opium. Such conduct 
is unrighteous. Who can justify it ? What wonder 
if officials and people say that England is wilfvMy 
working out China^s rwin^ and has no real friendly 
feeliv^ for her ? 

** The wealth and generosity of England are spoken 
of by all ; she is anxious to prevent and anticipate 
all injury to her commercial interest ; how is it, then, 
that she can hesitate to remove an acknowledged evil? 
Indeed it cannot be that England still holds to this evil 
business^ earning the hatred of the officials and people 
of China, and making herself a reproach a/mong the 
nations because she would lose a little revenue, were 
she to forfeit the cultivation of the poppy. 

" The writers hope that H. E. will memorialize his 
Government to give orders in India and elsewhere 
to substitute the cultivation of cereals or cotton. 
Were both nations to rigorously prohibit the growth 
of the poppy, both the traffic in and the consump- 
tion of opium might alike be put an end to. To do 



CHINESE ANTI-OPIUM POLICY. 127 

away with so great an evil would be a great virtue on 
England's part ; she would strengthen Mendly rela- 
tions, and make herself illustrious. How delightful 
to have so great an a^t transmitted to after-ages I 

" This matter is injurious to commercial interests, 
in no ordinary degree* If H. E., the British Minis- 
ter, cannot, before it is too late, arrange a plan for 
a joint prohibition (of the traflfic), then no matter 
with what devotedness the writers may plead, they 
may be imable to cause the people to put aside ill- 
feeling, and so strengthen friendly relations as to 
place them for ever beyond fear of disturbance. Day 
and night therefore, the writers give to this matter 
most earnest thought, and overpowering is the dis- 
tress q>nd anxiety it occasions them. 

" Having thus presumed to imbosom themselves, 
they would be honoured by his Excellency's reply." 

We do not envy the mental condition of that 
Englishman who can read through the above letter 
without shame and sorrow, to think that we should 
have put it into the power of Chinese statesmen to 
address us thus. That document alone ought to 
settle the opium question. Can a Christian Govern- 
ment, a Christian nation, refuse to respond to such 
an appeal as this? Would that that document 
were placarded at every railway-station, published 
in every newspaper in Great Britain, until the 
aroused conscience of the people demanded to be 
relieved from the reproach now justly resting upon 
us! Would that the Chinese Government would 



130 BRITISH OPIUM pouor. 

formed to our demand for legalization ; 'but it was 
tlirough compulsion, and only by compulsion is the 
legalization maintained. The moral character of the 
trade, therefore, is no better than it was in the old 
smuggling days. The scandal is simply shifted from 
the shoulders of a few private individuals to that of 
the nation as a whole. 



CHAPTER VI. 

ON OPIUM CULTIVATION IN CHINA. 

Tab origin of the practice of smoking opium in 
China is wrapt in obscurity. By some Great 
Britain has been made responsible for the intro- 
duction and sole maintenance of the habit. Others 
again have tried to relieve our country from odium 
by asserting that the practice was known and 
widely spread in China before the first chest of 
Indian drug was landed in the country. A brief 
review of the scanty allusions to opium in China 
before the present century will enable us to judge 
of the merits of these conflicting opinions. 

Mr. T. T. Cooper says that the habit of smoking 
opium has existed on the western borders of China 
for "a great many years, probably a couple of 
centuries;"* but adduces no evidence in support of 
this assertion. Mr. Hobson, Commissioner of Cus- 
toms at Hankow, made particular inquiries upon 
this point, and informs us that^ " The popular story 
in Szechuen is that 100 years ago opium was intro- 

' Report, East India Finance, 1871, p. 258. 
• Ibid., p. 282. 

K 2 



132 BRITISH OPIUM POLICT. 

duced into Szechuen, Shensi, YunnaB, and Ewei- 
chauy from India and Thibet. At the time of its 
introduction it was esteemed for its medicinal pro- 
perties only; but during Eienlxmg's reign (1736-96) 
it was discovered to be smokable, and the Szechuen 
people were among the earliest indulgers.'* He also 
states that in the " Greneral History of Yunnan/* 
revised and republished in the first year of Kien- 
lung's reign, opium is noted as a common product 
of Yung Changfoo. Dr. J. Wilson, celebrated for 
his attainments in Hindoo literature,' thinks that 
opium was not generally known in India until about 
a century £^o,' because he has not found it men- 
tioned in native books. It was introduced, he says, 
from Turkey and Arabia into India by the Moham- 
medan conquerors, and was familiar to the rulers long 
before the people got acquainted with it. If this be 
correct, since the progress of opium cultivation 
probably moved eastwards, beginning perhaps in 
Egypt, and passing by way of Turkey, Persia, India, 
Assam, Burma, into Yunnan, the south-western 
province of China, it seems extremely unlikely that 
while the poppy was rare in India a hundred years 
back, it can have been well-known, as Mr. Cooper 
supposes, in western China a centurjr earUer. The 
Calcutta Blue book on opium contains a memo- 
randum from the Delegates of the Shanghai Chamber 
of Commerce appointed to investigate the origin and 
extent of the cultivation of the poppy in China, in 
which they report that " the opium pipe is believed 

' Report, East India Finance, 187I» p. 346. 



^■^^ 



ON OPIUM CULTIVATION IN CJHINA. 133 

bj the Szechuen people to have been, a Canton in- 
vention^ dating from the tenth year of Taoukwang 
(1830)."* This belief is evidently erroneous as to 
the date, but as an example of the unreliability of 
native accounts, it may be taken as a set-off against 
those upon which Mr. Cooper's opinion was based. 
It may have some weight as indicating the locality 
of the origin of opium smoking, but cannot be im- 
plicitly trusted in this respect. 

In 1830 a censor, Shaou Chinghwuh, of Chekiang, 
a sea-board province, speaks, in a memorial, of the 
cultivation having spread within the previous ten 
years over a large part of the province, and says 
it is reported to be grown in Fohkien, Ewang 
Tung, and Yunnan.* Major Burney wrote from 
Ava, under date March 9, 1831, '^Opiiun is 
imported by the caravans from China to Ava. 
The Chinese said that the poppy plant had been 
cultivated for the last eight or ten years at a 
place called Medoo, two days' journey fix)m Tali, 
but that the cultivation is limited and carried on 
secretly, for, if the Government at Peking became 
aware of it the cultivators would lose their lives. 
The quantity imported by these caravans is insig- 
nificant." * Choo Tsun's memorial (1836) states that 
in Yunnan the poppy is cultivated "all over the 
hills and the open champaign," and the annual 

* Papers relating to the Opium Question. Calcutta, 1870. 
p. 260. 

* Chinese Repository, vol. y. p. 472. 

* Phipps, China and Extern Trade, p. 231. 



134 BRITISH OPIUM POLIOT. 

produce "cannot be less than several thousand 
chests."' The Chinese are reckless in these vague 
numerical estimates; but nevertheless the produc- 
tion at that date must have been considerable, and 
would indicate a long ac()uaintance with the plant. 
The Roman Catholic missionaries who entertained 
Mr. Cooper in Szechuen informed him that the 
poppy was not introduced into that province when 
they entered it thirty years previously.* 

These are the data upon which we have to form 
our opinion as to the origin of opium smoking and 
the date of the commencement of poppy cultivation 
in China. No definite conclusion can be drawn. 
As to the origin of the habit of smoking the drug, it 
is quite possible that, in a country of such vast area, 
consisting of provinces but loosely boimd together, 
the vice has radiated from two centres. Mr. 
Cooper's statement that China may be roughly 
divided into halves, the line passing fi:*om north to 
south through Hankow, of which the eastern half 
consumes Indian, and the western native opium, 
may give some support to this hypothesis.* If this 
seems unlikely then the balance of evidence rather 
inclines to the conclusion that opium smoking began 
in Canton. It is worthy of remark, that the first 
memorial against opium, at least the first of which 
we have information, proceeded from Keihking, 
Governor of Canton Province in 1799, and that this 

^ Correspondence relating to China, 1840, p. 170. 

• Pioneer of Commerce, p. 130. 

* Report. East India Finance, 1871, p. 253. 



••■"«■ 1^* ^^•^"-^■^^^IW^i^p^^ 



ON OPIUM CULTIVATION IN CHINA. 135 

stigmatizes the drug as ^Hhe vile dirt of foreign 
countries'/' 

Whether the native cultivation preceded or suc- 
ceeded the importation by sea we cannot positively 
determine. *^ Before the year 1767 the import of 
this drug into China rarely exceeded 200 chests, in 
that year it amounted to 1000.'' Now the Portu- 
guese, who carried opium to China before 1767, had 
possessed commercial settlements in China since 
1587. Defoe, in " Bobinson Crusoe," published in 
1 719, makes his famous hero take opium from the 
Straits to China, but does not allude to the practice 
of opium smoking.* On the Chinese side we have 
the Tunnan history, written before 1736, which 
mentions the growth in that province. These dates 
approximate, and we may fairly infer that the drug, 
so valuable as a medicine, was introduced into China 
from the east, by sea, and the west by land, at no 
very distant dates, and that in the west the plant 
followed the drug at no long interval. However 
this may be, the first distinct reference on record to 
smoking as a common practice is in that memorial 
of 1799 already referred to ; and we may reasonably 
conclude that the vice did not attain to serious 
dimensions long before that time, though its early 
beginnings may go back a good way into the century. 
It is a plausible conjecture that the sudden increase 

* A famous Chinese noyel of the last centurj, the Hung Lau 
Mung, is said to refer to opium-smoking as a strange newly 
invented indulgence : but I hare not been able to Terify the 
reference. 



136 BRITISH OPIUM POLICY. 

of the import noted in 1767, from 200 to 1000 
chests, may denote the recent discovery of the sen- 
sual indulgence. 

A negative but* conclusive argument remains. 
The silence of Chinese literature is decisive against 
the opinion that opium smoking prevailed long ago. 
China does not only possess a few old books, but 
has an immense and constantly increasing literature, 
including archaeological, historical, geographical, and 
medical works ; besides dramas, poems, and novels 
innumerable, which give minute descriptions of the 
habits of the people from a distant antiquity to the 
present time. It is impossible that such a practice 
as that of smoking opium could have established 
itself among such a people for long, without imprint- 
ing its mark on their literature. The very street 
ballads of modem days refer continually to opium 
smoking, and if the vice dated far back, we should 
surely find it alluded to in the songs and romances 
of the people, just as we find that wine-bibbing is. 
Medical works of 300 years ago describe the drug 
and its uses in medicine ; and the absence of allusion 
to opium smoking sufficiently demonstrates its non- 
existence until a recent date. Though it is clear, 
from the above review, that the whole accountability 
does not fall upon our shoulders, it is also clear that 
the facts will not permit us to represent ourselves as 
merely having supplied the materials for the gratifi- 
cation of a vicious habit, already confirmed and wide- 
spread before the introduction of Indian opium into 
the Chinese market. The habit has grown and 



ON OPIUM CULTIVATION IN CHINA, 137 

spread along with the increase of our supply; we 
have fed the eastern half of the empire with the drug 
almost exclusively ; and there is much reason to fear 
that the introduction and propagation of the native 
cultivation in certain districts, was directly stimu- 
lated by the foreign supply. 

The native growth of the poppy must now be con- 
sidered as a present fact, having a most important 
bearing on the future prospects of the monopoly. 
Prince Kung and his colleagues in that biting note 
to Sir R. Alcock, showed themselves well informed 
at last as to the motive of the British Qovemment in 
upholding the trade, and openly threatened to strike 
at the roots of our revenue, by permitting the free 
cultivation in their own territory. The threat is 
new, but the fear on our side is an old fear. Even 
in the Company's days, it was known that the poppy 
was spreading in China, and since then, almost every 
year, the finance ministers responsible for the Indian 
budget, have pointed out the risk of our losing our 
revenue from this cause. It is a sword of Damocles, 
always hanging over our heads, and rendering a 
secure enjoyment of the monopoly revenue impossi- 
ble ; but will it ever fall ? As usual, in dealing with 
Chinese afiairs, it is impossible from lack of definite 
statistical data, to do more than conjecture. Such 
conjectures are almost always influenced by our 
wishes or our fears. One says that the consumption 
in China increases at so rapid a rate, that its use wiU 
absorb all our supply, and all the native production 
too. Another, that the quality of the native 



138 BRITISH OPIUM POLICY. 

drug is so inferior, that those who can afford the 
imported will always use it. Against this it is 
alleged that the home manufacture has improved 
and is improving, and that the natives are beginning 
to prefer their own opium, because milder in its in- 
fluence, and therefore not exercising so fetal a 
tyranny over its votaries. Instead of adding one 
more to these various prognostications of the future, 
we will collect here what information we have been 
able to gather about the present state of the case ; 
referring to the Appendix for the expressions of 
opinion gathered from different quarters. 

The Trades Reports put forth by the Chinese 
Imperial Maritime Customs, which are all under 
foreign superintendence, give much information 
upon this topic. The Reports we quote from are 
for 1869. 

HanJcow. — " The importation of (foreign) opium 
is considerably short for the last two seasons, but 
this is not to be wondered at now that each opium 
shopkeeper in this and the surrounding districts, 
advertizes native drug for sale. 

** The general estimate of the opium merchants 
is: — 

Province of Szechuen, Annual Yield 6000 peculs. 
„ „ Kweichow „ „ 15,000 „ 

„ „ Yunnan „ „ 20,000 „ 

Total yield 41 ,000 peculs." 

Thus these three provinces alone were calculated 



ON OPIUM CULTIVATION IN CHINA. 139 

to yield annuallj about 40,000 chests, and this at a 
time when the cultivation was prohibited. It is 
necessaiy to state for those who do not know China, 
that the Grovemment prohibition is not, as many 
persons assert, absolutely inefficacious. No doubt 
when one hears of half a province being white with 
poppy flowers, at the very time when proclamations 
against its cultivation are hanging at the yamen 
doors, English readers naturally conclude that the 
prohibitory edicts are equivalent to obsolete laws of 
the reign of the Stuarts in our statute-book, which 
are known only to antiquarians, and dragged to 
light occasionally by magazine-writers for public 
amusement or instruction. This, however, is not 
the case. Prohibition in China has two results; 
irregular taxation, and a degree of risk, and there- 
fore operates to diminish^ while it does not prevent 
the cultivation. These edicts may be dead letters 
one year, and be instinct with Ufe and activity the 
next. The Chinese know this, and of course this 
knowledge has a deterrent effect of a certain amount. 
That these edicts are not regarded as absolutely 
valueless by Chinese themselves is apparent from a 
paragraph of this very report : — 

"At the time of my visit, proclamations were 
already posted at Chung-King, Leang-shan, Yen- 
Keang, and the adjacent towns, prohibiting the 
cultivation of the poppy, and exhorting that more 
attention be paid to cereal crops. The only 
apparent result was, that opium smokers feeling 
unable to break themselves of the pernicious habit, 



140 BKITISH .OPIUM POLICY. 

were actually buying up and storing opium, for fear 
supplies should be cut short." 

Though the reporter prefaces this sentence by the 
remark, " there is little hope that the production of 
opium will ever be successfully put a stop to," it is 
plain there was much fear in the minds of those 
keenly interested in the matter. 

Ghinkiang. — The report here is, " though the 
importation of Szechuen opium during the year has 
been peculs 26'86 over the preceding year; the 
quantity is too small to affect the market to any 
extent ; and as it is reported that stringent measures 
are being adopted to prevent the cultivation of the 
poppy, it is likely that the trade in native drug will 
remain stationary or gradually decrease." 

The Baron de M^ritens reports from Foochow that 
"the opium produced in three districts of that 
province is so inferior, possesses so disagreeable a 
smell that the Chinese cannot smoke it except as a 
mixture in the proportions of f ths of Malwa to f ths 
of native opium ; but one must remember that it is 
probable that the Chinese will soon learn that a very 
simple chemical preparation will remove that un- 
pleasant smell." 

From Tientsin we hear that " the import of opium 
reached its maximum in 1866. There were two 
causes to account for the large import at that time, 
since which the quantity has decreased till the past 
year. It would appear from Mr. Dick's report for 
1866 " that in the first place the then recently issued 
edict as to the cultivation of the poppy in China, 



ON OPIUM CULTIVATION IN CHINA. 141 

though not carried out to the extent of completely 
stopping its production, had nevertheless tended to 
bring much of the land then so employed under 
different cultivation." The other cause was a 
temporary rise in price. 

Kiukiang. The Customs Agent here states that 
"the Eaang-si grown opium is produced in three 
prefectures, in small patches off the main line of 
travel, and brought to the towns and sold. The 
poppy is not yet boldly raised in extensive fields as 
in Szechuen and Shensi, but no decided efforts are 
made by the authorities to check the cultivation, 
and native opium is purchaseable in small quantities 
for personal consumption in most of the large towns 
along the banks of the river Kan." 

Mr. Dick says " the high price Tndian opium has 
commanded, has been the result of two causes — the 
superiority of the article, and the prejudice of the 
Chinese against raising it themselves. Although 
the latter cause has never prevented home produc- 
tion, it has certainly made the extension of it slow. 
But the decay of the prejudice and the increase of 
the production in China are making India amenable 
to the laws of pohtical economy in respect to this 
branch of trade." Careful consideration of the 
above reports will show that there is at present a 
considerable practical check upon the production of 
native opium, and that China possesses the poten- 
tiality of increasing her native supply to an indefinite 
extent, as well as of improving its manufacture. 

From the Commercial Reports of her Majesty's 



142 BBITISH OPIOM POLICY. 

consuls in China for 1872 we glean the fol- 
lowing : * — 

Ohefoo. ^'Malwa is the only kind that finds a 
ready market. Patna and Benares are imported, 
but only in very small quantities, but Persian finds 
no market at all. Native opium appears to be 
gradually making its way in the market. The 
poppy is cultivated to no small extent in this 
province (Shantung) though not in the immediate 
neighbourhood of the port." 

In Fohhien province * " the quantity produced was 
small, perhaps not exceeding 100 pounds. In the 
adjoining province of Chekiang there was also a 
falling off in the total yield. The unusually cold 
weather at Chinese New year is thought to be the 
cause." * 

Consul Hughes of Hankow makes a statement of 
much importance. ** Opium. A glance at this 
Table shows a remarkable decrease in the amount 
of opium imported. This is attributed to the growing 
tendency of the Ohineae to use the native article^ their 
preference for which is not exclusively due to its cheap-^ 
ness. It is said that the mildness of the native 
is the principal cause of the growing preference 
for its use. The Chinese say that it is much 
easier to give up temporarily, or abandon altogether, 
the habit of smoking native than that of smoking 
foreign opium. The habit of smoking foreign opium 
affects the system to such a degree that the sudden 

* China, No.*3 (1873), Commercial Reports, p. 31. 

• Ibid., p. 43. « Ibid., p. 64. 



ON OPIUM CULTIVATION IN CHINA. 14S 

abandonment of the use of so powerful a drug would 
to a certainty impair the health, whereas the smoker 
of native opium is by no means so seriously affected 
by the want of his favourite narcotic. 

<< As far as could be ascertained the net value of 
all the opium grown in the province of Szechuen 
would reach about 85,000,000 of taels sycee [at the 
price given, 360 taels a chest, 97,000 chests I], but 
this cipher is anything but certain. A late imperial 
decree is said to have abolished the liJcm (war-tax) 
on native opium, the growth of which was to be 
strictly prohibited, but this decree may perhaps 
only concern the province of Kweichow, where the 
poppy is so extensively cultivated as to leave no spa4ie 
for the production of cereals.** 

From Newchwang^ in Manchuria, the consul 
writes, ''the price of native drug has risen, in 
consequence of the exertions of the authorities, both 
here and in the adjoining provinces, to carry into 
execution the Imperial proclamation prohibiting its 
growth. A smaller quantity therefore has been 
produced, and the price is now nearly equal to that 
of foreign opium." 

From IHsntsin ' Consul Mongan reports : — 

'' There can be little doubt that last year's deficit 
in this case was due principally to the excessive 
likin taxes of this province, and to the competition 
of native opium. 

'* The second great cause of the falling off in the 
importation of 1872 was, no doubt, the competition 

• /Jid., p. 80. • /Wd.,p. 111. 



144 BRITISH OPIOM POLICY. 

of native opium, the increased consumption of which 
here was indicated last year by the re-exportation, 
not only of all the Persian opium which had been 
imported in 1872 (amounting only to twenty-seven 
piculs), but also by the re-exportation of twenty-six 
piculs of the same kind of drug which had remained 
on hand from 1871. The price of Persian opium 
generally follows that of Malwa, and is from fifty to 
sixty taels cheaper. Thus, in point of cheapness, 
Persian competes much more than either that of 
Malwa or Bengal with native opium, and its dis- 
appearance from the Tientsin market in 1872 was 
most likely due to the fact that it did not pay 
shippers to import it at all, owing to the cheap 
rates ruling for its native rival. These rates again 
showed that there was a large supply of the latter 
in the market, a supply sufficient to drive the 
comparatively cheap Persian out of the field, and to 
limit the sale of the more expensive Indian. 

"Although the prohibition of poppy-culture by^ 
Imperial edicts has in former years been practically 
inoperative, still there are some grounds for antici- 
pating that the Rescript of 17th December, 1872, 
will prove more efficacious, for the orders given are 
more explicit, and in October last Mr. Taintor, 
Acting Commissioner of Customs at Newchwang, 
reported that a similar edict, directing the destruc- 
tion of the poppy-crop in the province in which 
the port is situated, and the adjacent districts of 
MongoUa had in many places been carried into 
execution." 



ON OPIUM CULTIVATION IN CHINA. 145 

Shanghai. Report by Consul Medhurst ' — 

'* The increase in the cultivation of the poppy has 
had a most injurious effect on the consumption of 
the foreign drug, the import of which during the last 
five years remained perfectly stationary ^ this year indeed 
showing a decrease^ whilst the production of the 
native drug during the same time has more than 
quadrupled. 

" Exact statistics of the growth of the poppy 
cannot be obtained, but there is no doubt, as far as 
can be ascertained from the Chinese themselves and 
from the reports of foreign travellers, it is year by 
year increasing largely. Dr. Legge, the well-known 
sinologue and missionary, lately made the overland 
journey from Peking to Chinkiang, and he reports 
that the country between the Yellow River and the 
Yangtzse is covered with poppy fields. The temp- 
tations to its cultivation are at present very great, 
as on the lowest estimate of the peasants themselves 
it is twice as profitable as growing wheat, some 
saying even six times. The spread of poppy 
cultivation all over China, has again attracted the 
attention of the Imperial Government, and lately a 
decree appeared forbidding it. This, of course, will 
not have the slightest effect, as it would be against 
the interests of all the officials to put down such a 
useful contributor to their exchequer, both public 
and private. 

** Under these circumstances I cannot but express 
my opinion, and I am borne out in it by the principal 

' China, No. 3 (1873), Part II. p. 140. 



146 BRITISH OPIUM POLICY, 

opium merchants of Shanghai, that we may look 
forward to a gradual falling off in the demand for 
the foreign drug, and if the cultivation of the poppy 
continues to spread, as it is now doing, to the virtual 
extinction of the trade in Indian opium/' 

Mr. Malet ' in his general review of the Ohinese 
trade, in a report to Mr. Wade, expresses himself 
thus : ** The kind of danger to the Indian revenue 
arising from the increasing use of native opium may 
be likened to the danger to which our excise revenue 
would be exposed if the taste for light wine in prefer- 
ence to spirits were to become general in England/' 

He diows that the danger is not imaginary by a 
.table [see Appendix] which gives only 8,261,3812. 
as the total net value of opium, imported in 1872, 
against 8,695,5922. in 1871. 

Now, if any one will take the trouble to compare 
the above two reports, that of the Customs for 
]869, with that of the Consuls for 1872, he will 
see signs of a steady progress of opium-cultivation 
in China. But, if instead of comparing 1872, with 
1869, we compare it with 1863, the contrast is 
startling. Mr. Hart, the Inspector-General of 
Chinese Maritime Customs, collected in 1864, from 
all the offices under his superintendence, rej^es to 
the question : ** Has native opium been in use at 
the port in 1868 ?" To this question Newchwang, 
Chinkiang, Kiukiang, Ningpo, Eoochow, Swatow, 
returned the brief reply,* " No." Ch^oo replied, 

• Ibid., p. 223. 

* Papers reUtiog to Opium. CulcntU^ 1870, p. 208. 






ox OPIUM CULTIVATION IN CHINA, 147 

'^ consamption so small that it may be stated as 
7it7." In Canton, "some native opium had been 
used." Hankow reported an import of native 
opium from Szechuen of 500 peculs weight. Shang- 
hai and Amoy also report imports of 500 peculs in 
each port. Thus in 1868, native opium hardly- 
existed side by side with the Indian drug, whereas 
in 1872, it seriously threatens to oust it from the 
market I 

The memorandum of the Financial Department of 
the Indian Government, dated 23rd of February, 
1871, sums up the results of wide inquiry, in terms 
which fully support our views'; particularly stating 
(1) that up to 1817, native opium was produced 
only in Yunnan ; (2) that between 1817 and 1840^ 
the cultivation was introduced into Szechuen^ 
Kwangsi, and Kweichow ; (3) that up to 1848, the 
Imperial Government strenuously opposed the culti- 
vation, so that in some places, even bribes to the 
mandarins failed to secure the fields, and in other 
places the poppy was destroyed by an enraged 
populace ; (4) that after 1848, a great increase of 
the poppy took place, so that in fifteen years from 
1848 to 1864, the whole of Western China became 
an opium-producing region. 

But information of a later date than that em- 
bodied in the memorandum shows a marvellous 
spread of the poppy within the last few years in 
Eastern China also, in Manchuria, in Shantung, 
Kiangpeh, Chekiang, Foh-kien. These provinces 
have all been referred to in the Customs and Con- 

L 2 



148 BRITISH OPIUM POLICT. 

Bular reports above, but we may add here an 
extract from a leader in the North China Herald of 
7th of June, 1873. " Most unexpected was the 
account given by the two travellers (Dr. Legge and 
Mr. Bdkins) of the enormous extent of the cultiva- 
tion of opium in Shantimg and Kiangpeh, and the 
equally startling fact that the wide introduction of 
the cultivation of the poppy only dates some ttoo 
years back,** 

The case then stands thus. There is now an 
immense production of opium in China. In 1869 
we have seen it estimated at 40,000 chests in three 
provinces. In 1872 nearly 100,000 chests in 
Szechuen only. It is probable that in the last 
case Szechuen is used rather as the designation 
of all western opium, than for that of one single 
province ; and even so, it may be an exaggeration. 
Nevertheless it is clear that the native production 
is already vast, and that it increases with rapid 
development. There are signs, also, that the 
quaUty of the native drug is improving, and more 
than that, that the taste for it, in preference to the 
stronger foreign article, is growing. The prices of 
the two may be compared in Shanghai in 1872, in 
Consul Medhurst*s report. Indian ranged from 
425 taels to 510 taels; native from 250 to 300 
taels. These East-coast prices would gradually rise 
for foreign, and fall for native opium, as one went 
from the coast towards the west. This very serious 
rivalry has sprung up whilst the cultivation of the 
poppy is still illegal in China. While some foreign 



ox OPIUM CULTIVATION IN CHINA. 149 

witnesses declare that in most localities the illegality 
is no practical hindrance to the cultivation, there 
are indications that the present state of the law has 
a restraining influence, though, perhaps, not to a 
great extent. In this state of affairs. Prince Kung 
and his colleagues seriously debate the question 
whether it would not be well to revoke all edicts 
against the cultivation, on purpose to undersell and 
drive out of the country the opium imported from 
abroad. We hear, too, of one of the most influential 
of the great satraps of China, Li Hung Chang, posi- 
tively encouraging the growth all through his juris- 
diction. 

If we do not seize time by the forelock our 
Indian opium revenue may die a natural death 
within a few years, and we may have to bear the 
inevitable loss, as weU as to carry the stain upon 
our escutcheon to the end of time. 

One method of countermining the Chinese and 
saving the revenue for India, at least in pai*t, 
is patent enough to every one who regards the 
state of affairs with the eyes of a merchant or 
political economist prepared to ignore all con- 
siderations of morality and philanthropy; but the 
suggestion is so frightful, that no right-minded 
person will hear it stated without pain. We might 
deliberately set to work to double or treble our 
Indian production, and swamp the Chinese market 
by an inundation of cheap opium, which should 
render the native drug unsaleable. Our Indian 
monopoly profits leave a terrible margin to work 



150 BRITISH OPIUM POLICY. 

upon. In 1871-2 the Bengal opium cost about 
Rs. 360 per chest, and sold in Calcutta for Bs. 1387 
per chest: more than 1000 Rs. per chest clear 
profit. In that year 49,695 chests were sold for 
export. Now it is evident that if the export were 
increased from under 50,000 chests to 100,000 
or 200,000 chests, a profit of little more than one 
half, or one quarter, of the present profit would bring 
in the same revenue, allowing for some increase in 
cost of production. Rs. 360 equal about 108 taels. 
With native opium fetching from 250 to 300 taels 
in Shanghai, India might easily undersell the 
Chinese opium and yet obtain more than double the 
cost price of her opium. But it is fearful to think 
of such a competition. The Chinese price includes 
already irregular fees of various kinds to a large 
amount, probably much over fifty taels per chest. 
The grower's profit is stated as sometimes six times 
as much as he would get from a grain crop. The 
Chinese therefore could lower their prices to a 
large extent, and every year's production must 
accustom new hands to the manufacture, and make 
production cheaper. The sure residt of such a 
strife between the two countries would be the 
cheapening of the drug to an alarming point, and 
the consequent great increase of its consumption. 
That is almost the only sure result, for the increase 
of production in India could not be attained in one 
year, or in ten : and there is no reason, so far as 
we can see, why in the end the Chinese should not 
be able to produce quite as cheaply as India. But 



ON OPIUM CULTIYATION IH CHINA. 151 

whatever the final issue* the process oonld not take 
place without a fearful acceleration of China's ruin. 
Although the national conscience seems almost 
insensible to the present evils of the opium trade 
we cannot believe that Britain would ever know- 
ingly consent to enter upon such a fatal extension 
of the traffic. 



CHAPTER VII. 

BESTJLTS OF THE BBITISH OPIUM POLIOY. 

The immediate result of the opium policy initiated 
by the East India Company, and continued by the 
British Government, has been a great extension of 
poppy cultivation in India and China. The monopoly 
is responsible for this directly in the case of Bengal, 
partly directly and partly indirectly in the case of 
Central India, and indirectly in the case of China. 
For the proof of these assertions we refer to the 
historical facts already narrated at length in previous 
chapters. Defenders of the policy vainly strive to 
shelter it behind the ordinary operation of the trade 
laws of demand and supply. The operation of these 
economic laws does not divest of responsibility those 
who set them in motion at either end ; for though it 
woidd be absurd to speak of supply as alone creative 
of demand, there is no question but that an abundant 
and constantly sustained supply increases demand, 
whenever the article is not one of absolute necessity. 
When silk came by caravans across Central Asia, 
and a single robe was worth its weight in gold in 
Europe, the shining fabric was reserved for emperors 



EESULT8 OP THE BRITISH OPIUM POLICY. 153 

and nobles, and no demand could be said to exist 
for it among common people; whereas now the 
abundant supply creates a demand among all classes 
but the very poorest. The maid-servant who covets 
a silk dress may be literally said to have had 
the demand created in her case, by the ample 
supply of the material which places it constantly 
before her eyes, and renders it not impossible for 
her to obtain it. Only a few years ago there was no 
demand for newspapers amongst multitudes who are 
now daily or weekly purchasers of them. In this 
case the supply of penny and halfpenny journals 
may be fairly said to have almost alone created the 
demand. Such illustrations might be indefinitely 
miQtipUed, and no reasonable man can refuse to 
acknowledge that the demand for opium in China 
did not increase fi-om a few hundred chests in 1766 
to perhaps 200,000 chests in 1872 without the im- 
mense supply from India contributing to foster and 
develope the ever-increasing demand. Compliance 
with the ordinary operation of this natural law of 
trade is of course innocent, if the article dealt in be 
innocent. But what shall we say of it if the article 
be known to he noxious ? And how shall we explain 
the conduct of the East India Company in at the 
same time fighting against the ordinary economic law 
in its own territories, and yielding itself volun- 
tarily to be carried along with the current when it 
set towards China? Can the same fountain at 
once send forth sweet water and bitter ? 

But it is a glaring contradiction of the well- 



154 BRITISH OPIUM POUCY. 

known facts to justify the Indian exportation of 
opium as a simple compliance with the laws of 
supply and demand. The monopoly interfered 
with the ordinary processes of trade, both inter- 
nally and externally, both in production and in sale. 
The influence of Government, the machinery of 
Gk)vernment, the capital of Grovemment, have all 
been employed in stimulating production,^ while 
British bayonets and cannon insured the con- 

^ The Calcutta Bine Book contMne abundant evidence of this^ 
See Minute bj the Hon. J. Strachej, Simhi, lOth April, 1869, on 
p. 86, in which he eajs : '' There seemB to me to have been for 
some time past a constant and most wise desire on the part of the 
Government of Bengal, to increase the production of opium." 
.... The Benares Opium Agent has been urged hj the Lieu- 
tenant Governor to extend the cultivation as much as can be 

judicionslj done It seems to me, therefore, that immediate 

measures of the most energetic character ought to be taken with 
the object of increasing the production of opium. .... I think 
that special inquiry should be made as to the possibility of profit- 
ably extending the cultivation of opium in the districts of the 
North- Western Provinces, in which canal irrigation is available.'' 

Letter from the Hod. W. Grey, Lieutenant Governor of Bengal 
dated Barrackpore, 22nd April, 1869 (p. 88), says to Mr. Camp- 
bell :^I have a telegraphic message from Simla^ urging " that 
every possible expedient that you (I) approve should be used even 
now to extend the opium cultivation next season to the utmost 
practicable extent.'* Minute by Sir R, Temple, dated 27th April, 
1869, (same page): *^ lam dear for extending the cultivation, and 
for insuring a plentiful supply. If we do not do this, the Chinese 
will do it for themselves. They had better have our good opium 
than their own indifferent opium. There really is no moral 
objection to our conduct in this respect." Add to these the state- 
ment in Sir W. Muir*s Minute (1868): "A few years ago the 
Government of Bengal was straining every nerve to extend the 
cultivation of the poppy.'* 

Other prooia are given in the Appendix. 



KESULTS OF TUE BRITISH OPIUM POLICY. 155 

tinaance of the sale. When a Govemnient advances 
millions to cultivators to secure a crop, when it 
sends an agent to Indore with millions more to buy, 
how can it pretend to leave the laws of trade to 
fulfil themselves? When it first connives at 
smuggUng, and then fights for smugglers, how 
can it plead a wise obedience to the teachings of 
political economy? We must therefore conclude 
that the Government is directly responsible for 
extension of poppy cultivation in Bengal, also 
responsible, formerly by direct intervention, latterly 
and always by its support of the trade, in Malwa ; 
and responsible also for the cultivation in China, 
in so far as that cultivation has sprung out of 
rivalry to the introduction of foreign opium. 

Before considering the results of the opium policy 
to India and China separately, it is desirable that 
we should look at this extension of cultivation in its 
relation to the food supply, a bearing of the question 
important to both countries. Now we cannot say 
that opium is to be condemned simply because it 
occupies the soil which might otherwise grow grain. 
That argument would require the condemnation 
of indigo, tobacco, and every article which takes up 
ground and labour that might be bestowed upon 
edible products. The question of importance here 
is how rn/uch land is taken up by opium ? K opium 
were a harmless luxury, it is still certain that men 
and women would starve if all the land were planted 
with the poppy. The degree, therefore, in which 
this substance, useless for the nourishment of life, 



15(5 BRITISH OPIUM POLICY. 

takes the place of cereals, is a question of great 
importance. 

The proportion of land and labour which may be 
given to the poppy without detriment to the food- 
supply depends upon the existing means of inter- 
communication between the poppy district and other 
grain districts. The poppy-grower may make by his 
opium twice or five times the money that wheat or 
rice would bring him : but if there is no grain to be 
bought by his silver, he cannot live upon the metal 
nor upon the drug. Now even in India, under 
British government, with its roads and raUways, 
canals and steamers, we know that the means of 
transport in the country are far from adequate to all 
emergencies. The shocking memory of the Orissa 
famine,* in 1865-7, in which the total deaths were 
estimated at a million and a quarter, about one- 
fourth of the population, in which parents ate their 
own children, and horrors we cannot bear to 
transcribe were witnessed,*, has been almost oblite- 
rated from the public mind by the heroic efforts of 
the Government to meet the necessities of the recent 
terrible famine in Bengal. Upwards of 500,000 
acres of the richest land in the very districts in 
which this last famine was most severely felt, and 
this land largely enjoying the benefit of artificial 
irrigation, was devoted to the poppy. The lavish 
expenditure of Government having averted the worst 
results of the famine, we are not likely to hear how 
far the opium cultivation was detrimental to the 

' Vide Fraser's Magazine, September, 1867, p. 373. 



RESULTS OY THE BHITISH OPIUM POLICT, ITi? 

food supply. But these two recent famines are only 
the latest of a long series. Dr. Wilson, giving evi- 
dence * before the Select Committee of the House of 
Conmions, said that the poppy cultivation in Malwa 
cut off from Rajpootana its natural source of supply 
in time of famine, and that ^Mately, according to 
Government accounts, if I have read them correctly, 
1,200,000 people died of famine, and the diseases 
induced by it." This proves that the danger of opium 
production leading to the starvation of the people is 
not merely hypothetical, even in India. 

Turn now to China. If the relations between the 
number of mouths, the food supply, and the means of 
transport are such in India that a single season's 
drought over a limited area produces such serious 
results, think how momentous this matter becomes 
to China, destitute of railways, of good roads, with 
very few steamers upon her inland waters : in a word, 
with means of transport inadequate to a degree 
almost inconceivable to our western ideas. Famines 
recur periodically, though at irregular periods, in the 
vast, mountain-divided provinces of China. Chinese 
history abounds in records of most awful seasons of 
dearth. Even within the last ten years, dwellers on 
the coast have been repeating to one another the 
horrible rumour that, while they were enjoying cheap 
rice, in Kansuh human flesh was being sold for food I 
It is clear that in such a land the spread of poppy 
cultivation becomes, or may become, a question of 
life or death to multitudes. 

' Report, East India Finance, 1871, p. 340. 



158 BBirrsH opium policy. 

Putting together the information of the Chistoms 
Report, and that given by Mr. Edkins in the North 
China Eeraldj we arrive at these conclofiions. One 
mow* of land will produce about eight catties of 
opium annually. A regular opium smoker, con- 
suming his tael * a day, will require 22f catties in « 
year — ^that is, nearly the produce of three mow. 
Three m,ow of land, it is calcinated, will produce grain- 
stuff sufficient for one person for one year. But the 
poppy only occupies the soil for half the year, and 
another crop may be taken off the ground as well ; 
therefore it only absorbs one-half of the food-pro- 
ducing power of the land. Every two smokers, who 
consume each a tael a day, do therefore deprive the 
country of food for one person, or thereabouts. Sir 
R. Alcock reports, in 1869, that ** about two-thirds 
of the province of Szechuen, and one-third of 
Yunnan," are devoted to opium.* Szechuen is the 
larger province : but say one-half of the land in these 
two provinces together is laid down in opium. This 
will deprive the people of an annual amount of grain 
equal to one quarter of the whole possible pro- 
duction I Allowing for exaggeration in the figures 
— allowing that the poppy may partly displace 
sugar, cotton, tobacco, and other products not 
cereals — the statement, after every deduction, is 
formidable, and it is not surprising that Chinese 

* About three-fifths of an acre. 

* The taelf or Chinese ounce = 580 grains tro7« This is pro- 
bably much above the average usually consumed. 

* Calcutta Blue Book, p. 235. 



RESULTS OF THE BRITISH OPIUM POLICY. 159 

statesmen view the progress of the poppy with alarm. 
The memorial of Yau Pehchwan/ which led to the 
last edict against l^e cultivation, says that "the 
poppy deprives hundreds of thousands of people of 
grain-food, and that many have committed suicide 
rmder pressure of starvation, with money in their 
hands to buy food when none was to be had." If 
smoking were to become universal in China, putting 
together the enormous increase of poppy growth and 
consequent decrease of grain supply, with the effect 
of opium in diminishing physical power for labour, 
and in producing steriUty, one might speculate as to 
the number of generations which would succeed 
before the entire extermination of the Chinese people. 
Happily, smoking cannot become universal, because 
such considerations put a natural check upon it, 
besides the moral check. Yet while such an ex- 
tremity of evil is not to be apprehended, the amount 
of poppy cultivation in Szechuen and Yunnan alone 
is already great enough to render the prospects of 
those provinces truly pitiable in the event of a time 
of scarcity. 

The results of the British Opium Policy in respect 
to India itself are two: injury to our national 
reputation, and the imperilling of our Indian finances. 
Wherever there is wide increase of cultivation, there 
can hardly fail to be also an increase of consumption. 
It would appear, then, that we ought to place this 
increase of consumption in the forefront of the evils 

' IbicLj p. 222, and Appendix. 



160 BRITISH OPIUM FOUCT. 

resulting to India. But we will not insist upon 
this : for, on the one hand, the intention and actual 
effect of the monopoly, as we have seen in our chap- 
ter on the policy of the Company, was to restrict the 
consumption in India; and, on the other hand, 
although several witnesses attest the fact that the 
cultivators of the poppy do themselves consume part 
of their produce, we have no definite information 
upon this head. The Bengalees do not appear to b^ 
generally inclined to the vice of opium-eating. In 
the native states of Bajpootana and Central India, 
the habit of opium-eating is said to be almost uni- 
versal ; but though the stimulus which the Company 
gave to opium production there, by opening the 
China market to those states, very probably had a 
considerable influence in stimulating the home con- 
sumption, here again we lack such clear information 
as would justify us in charging the Company with 
the extension of the practice among the Bajpoots and 
Sikhs. We confine ourselves, therefore, to the two 
articles specified below. 

{1) The injury to the good repute of the British 
Qovemment and people among the natives of India 
which has resulted from our Opium Policy. 

Dr. Wilson testifies to this before the Parlia- 
mentary Committee: being asked, "What opinion 
do you think the natives generally hold regarding 
the Government connexion with the opium traffic ?" 
he replied,* "I have frequently heard the natives 
referring to it as indicating that the Government had 

* Report, EMt India Finuioe, 1871» p. 344. 



RESULTS OF THE BRITISH OPIUM POLICY. 161 

not proper regard to the well-being of the different 
oriental nations ; that it was accessory to the injury 
of China, and to the injury of India by what it did in 
favour of opium. I am in the way of hearing them 
bring forward objections to Government, but gene- 
rally I must say that in those districts with which I 
am acquainted, toUh the exertion of the opium matter, 
they are very much inclined to speak well of the 
Government." Again, Mr. Geddes* delivers this 
pointed opinion : " No rajah under a purely native 
system could administer the opium revenue as we do. 
The Brahmins woidd very soon starve him out." 
That is, the moral sense of heathens would be strong 
enough to compel the cessation of a system which 
the moral sense of Christians permits I This can easily 
be credited by those who have had personal ac- 
quaintance with Asiatics. The Christian has a much 
stronger sense of individual accountability than the 
heathen, but, as respects the action of government, 
his views are apt to be more lax. Political ex- 
pediency is allowed to condone for moral obliquity. 
The known inability of government to secure 
virtuous conduct by legislation brings with it an 
impression that government and virtue have two 
independent spheres. To the oriental, government 
is a very simple idea : despotic authority on one side, 
absolute obedience on the other. Hence the Asiatic 
admits no considerations of expediency to interfere, 
but visits the Government with the same moral 
judgments he would pass upon an individual. This 

• Ibid., p. 454. 

M 



162 BRITISH OPIUM POLICY. 

opium monopoly business is of ill odour among 
Englishmen : English statesmen, adverting to it in 
the House of Commons, treat it as on unhappj 
necessity, a puddle vrhich we cannot clean out, and, 
therefore, should not stir up. We may be sure that 
through the length and breadth of India, as education 
advances, as the native press spreads wider and 
wider, so the conduct of the British Grovemment will 
be more and more the subject of popular criticism. 
To some persons it may seem a matter of small 
import what our black-skinned subjects think of 
their masters. But every thoughtful man who 
ponders the future prospects of British sovereignty 
in India will see that the opinion the natives have of 
us is of the very gravest importance to the stability 
of our Government: and the philanthropist, who 
regards our rule in India as of far less import for the 
share it contributes to our national glory than as a 
means of benefiting and elevating the native races, 
will deem it no small matter that the confidence of 
the natives should be weakened, and their respect 
for us impaired, by witnessing a line of policy they 
cannot but condemn as unjust. 

(2) The dependence of our Indian Empire upon 
this precarious opium revenue is so startling a result 
of the policy under which it has gradually swelled to 
its present dimensions, that one almost hears the 
silent footfall of Nemesis approaching to strike us 
down with the very weapon we have forged our- 
selves. Already the anxieties of those statesmen 
who have been compelled to face the question have 



RESULTS OP THE BRITISH OPIUM POLICY. 163 

been a foreboding of calamity. Thirty-two years 
ago the House of Commons Committee declared, 
when the revenue was under 1,000,000/., that "it 
would be highly imprudent to rely upon the opium 
moRopoly as a permanent source of revenue." But 
the "high imprudence" being profitable for the 
moment, they put off the day of reverting to sounder 
principles of finance ; and it has been put off from 
that day to this, until the revenue has increased to 
such a vast sum that now it appears impossible to 
make any change. Our British Government has 
run a course parallel with that of the Chinese 
opium-smoker. He begins with a few whiffs, 
very pleasant, very refreshing, suggesting no thought 
of peril. Presently he is consuming his three 
or four pipes every day, and then a sudden qualm 
seizes him. He reflects "it would be highly im- 
prudent to get to depend entirely upon opium for 
health, happiness, even life itself." But he post- 
pones the day when he must abandon his favourite 
indulgence. A few years more, and now he takes 
his daily ounce as an absolute necessity. There is 
no longer a thought of relinquishing it. The only 
anxiety now is to get a constant supply. At last 
the day arrives when his supply fails, and he 
perishes miserably. Our Government has got to 
the stage of confirmed opium^revenue consumer. It 
has long ago passed the stage when the income of a 
few hundred thousands ftom the poppy might have 
been regarded as a luxury of revenue; now it 
clings with desperate tenacity to its millions of 

M 2 



164 BRITISH OPIUM POLfCr. 

profit from the poppy as a necessity. And now, 
when our dependence upon it seems a matter of life 
and death to our Indian Empire, the supply threatens 
to dry up. Is the opium-smoker's end to be that of 
the British Indian Empire also ? « 

The opium revenue, which was under one million 
when the House of Commons sanctioned it in 1832, 
had grown to about a million and a half when the 
House, by rejecting Lord Ashley's attack on the 
system, again undertook full responsibility for it in 
1843. It had grown to five millions by 1862. 
When Sir Wilfrid Lawson again in 1870 led a 
gallant assault upon it in the House, the revenue 
had swelled to 6,733,215Z. In 1871-72, the latest 
year of which we have printed parliamentary returns, 
the opium income was 7,657,213Z. I * 

In 1871-72 the total revenue of India was 
50,110,215Z. ; expenditure, 48,614,512Z. ; leaving a 
surplus of 1,496,703Z. 

What do these figures import ? That out of our 
Indian revenue of fifty millions, seven millions and 
a half, nearly one- sixth of the whole revenue, accrue 
fi:om opium. " That if this source of revenue had 
not existed, the surplus of one and a half million 
would have been changed into a deficit of six 
millions 1 

The year 1871-72, however, is an exceptionably 
favourable specimen of Indian finance. During a 

* Sinoe then the revenue has been less: the latest returns 

are,— 1872-73 6,870,423/. 

1873-74 6,333,599/. 



RESULTS OF THE BRITISH OPIUM R)IJCY. 165 

long series of years Indian finance ministers have 
had to face a succession of deficits. In 1869 Sir 
Richard Temple, in his speech on the Income Tax 
Bill,* said, — " Sir Charles Trevelyan, speaking in 
1^63, expressed a fervent hope, not yet realized^ that 
the deficit of 1861-62 would prove to be * the last of 
a long series of Indian deficits/ ...» But now for 
two years past the deficits have reappeared, and 
for the current year I shall have to tell the old tale 
of deficit." In the same speech he informs us that 
in eight years, from 1860 onward, three only were 
years of surplus, while five were years of deficit. A 
writer in the Quarterly Review in 1871 represents 
the Indian financial condition as one of normal 
deficit : the expenditure being about three millions 
more than the income.* Difficult of comprehension 
as this subject is to those not experts in Indian 
affairs, the discussions about the Income Tax in 
India have made some thoughts pretty familiar to 
the English mind. Oue is the expensiveness of the 
British government of India — an expensiveness which 
seems steadily increasing. Another thought is the 
very slight elasticity of Indian resources. In what 
might be called the romantic age of our connexion 
with India, our mighty dependency, mysterious by 
its distance, vastness, antiquity, and by the wide 
gulf which divides the Oriental mind from the 
English, was regarded as an El Dorado of wealth, a 
land to which Englishmen went out poor and 

• Vide East India Finance, 1871, Appendix No. 3. 

• Vide Appendix. 



166 BBITISH OPIUM POLICY. 

returned nabobs, a land able to supply inexhaustible 
spoils to conquering Clives, and practically illimitable 
revenues to courts of directors. But the age of 
romance has passed, and is succeeded by an age of 
prosaic reality, when the purse-strings are in our 
own keeping, and we have to balance the income 
and expenditure ourselves. The hard facts of 
actual experience have taught us that a population 
of 200,000,000, of whom the vast majority live in a 
condition of poverty hardly understood in England, 
getting little more than a bare subsistence of rice 
and vegetables from the soil they till, cannot, in 
spite of their immense numbers, supply revenues 
equal to the requirements of our expensive system 
of government, without difficulty, and in some cases 
even distress. When we are informed that we 
cannot govern India without exacting from the very 
poorest of the people a tax of 700, in some places 
600,^ per cent, on such a necessary of life as salt, 
we can hardly help wondering whether, after all, 
British government can really be on the whole so 
great a boon to India, whether perhaps the natives 
do not pay a price for the boon which takes all the 
gloss off it. This at least is certain, that so far 
from being able at will to change the nature of our 
taxation, every authority on Indian finance agrees 
that we are living in a dependence upon the opium 
revenue, which may be described as abject. It 
is about as difficult to suggest any other object or 
direction of taxation which could take the place 

* Report, East India Finance, 1871, pp. 183 and 453. 



BESDLTS OF THB BRITISH OPIUM POLICY, 167 

of these seven millions, as to indicate any method 
of economizing expenditure which would save the 
seven millions. Even with the seven millions we 
are embarrassed by a deficit which may almost be 
called chronic, and are at our wit's end to keep 
things going. As to giving up the opium revenue, 
Indian financialists would think it equivalent to pro- 
posing political suicide. To this pass has our opium 
policy brought us I Forty, and agaiu thirty years ^o, 
we deliberately elected to serve mammon rather than 
God, and now we find ourselves the chained bond- 
slaves of the evil one, absolutely compelled to per- 
sist in a course from which extrication seems hope- 
less. No wonder that advocates of the status pto 
close their eyes desperately to the facts of the case, 
deny resolutely that there is any immorality in the 
opium revenue at all, take refuge in suoh miserable 
shifts as that, if we did not poison the Chinese, 
some one else would. British opium policy has 
brought us to this, that we cannot afford to keep a 
conscience. 

What will be the issoe of it all? God alone 
knows. Optimists flatter themselves that, as the 
opium revenue has grown for three quarters of a 
century, so it may last on for an indefinite time ; or, 
if it decrease, the decrease will be gradual, and 
therefore easily borne. Pessimists foretell a fatal 
derangement of our Indian finances. All we know 
for certain is that this opium policy has brought us 
to a shameful and dangerous position, and we can 
see no way of escape from it. A way there is 



170 BRITISH OPIUM POLICY. 

xskildren. In round numbers, a pound weight of 
foreign opium costs China a pound sterling in money. 
In 1872 the importation was 8,039,246 lbs., for 
which China paid 8,261,381/.' Even this does but 
represent a fraction of the loss to the country ; for 
there must be added to it all the loss of vigour and 
inclination for useful labour which are the con- 
sequences of smoking. 

(3) The "opium" war directly, and our subse- 
quent wars indirectly, must be attributed to our 
British opium policy. There were other causes of 
irritation between the two Governments, and we 
cannot acquit the Chinese of blame for unreasonable 
and unjust behaviour in their dealings with foreigners. 
But throughout all our intercourse with them this 
baneful trade has been one of the chief causes of 
animosity. The damage, immediate and indirect, 
caused by these wars to the Chinese Government and 
people cannot be calculated. 

(4) As a consequence, the influence of the Chinese 
Government has been greatly weakened, and its 
power to preserve order and avert anarchy greatly 
lessened. After our " opium " war came the terrible 
ravages of the Taepings, which laid waste a large 
portion of the land and destroyed millions of lives. 
The prestige of the existing dynasty is shattered. 
An impression widely prevails that its years are 
numbered. People anticipate a change, and yet 
know not from what quarter to look for it. Past 
history teaches that revolutions in China are not 

• China, No. 3 (1873), Part II., Commercial Reports, p. 222. 



RESULTS OP THE BRITISH OPIUM POLICY. 171 

the affair of a few montliB or a year or two, but 
that generally a long period of anarchy and distress 
has marked the downfall of one dynasty and rise of 
its successor. For recent political troubles in China 
foreign influence is in great part accountable, and of 
that influence no item has been so mighty, so bane- 
ful as opium. 

(5) Lastly, the British opium policy has sup- 
pUed an unanswerable argument for hostility to 
foreigners. 

No one can estimate the degree to which this 
hostility is prejudicial to the welfare of China itself, 
and also to foreign intercourse with China. Among 
the records of intercourse between the civilized 
nations of Europe and the semi-civilized kingdoms 
of the East tbere is nothing to compare with the 
wonderful adoption by Japan of western ideas, 
western science, education, manufactures, industries, 
and all within the space of a few years. China 
perhaps would not have been as Japan, had there 
been no opium in the case. It might have taken 
decades or generations to accomplish in vast China 
what was effected in little Japan in a few years. 
But the same process, though differing in rate of 
progress, might have taken place in China, if from 
the first the intercourse of foreign nations had been 
conducted on the liberal and enlightened principles 
wlucli have characterized our relations with Japan. 
Notwithstanding all obstacles, some measure of 
progress has taken place in China through her 
intercourse with Europe. But the hindrances have 



172 BRITISH OPIUM POLICY. 

been great, and the greatest has been, and still is, 
opium. The literati, the leading governing classes, 
fear us and hate us, and one of the chief causes 
of their hatred and their fear is opium. This ani- 
mosity is a constant hindrance to progress, a con- 
stant source of danger. 

In the first place it is an absolute barrier to a 
truly peaceful intercourse. We are not at war 
with China only because China does not think the 
time ripe for war with us. But at the back of all 
our intercourse with the Chinese hes the " inevitable 
gunboat." Opium and Manchester goods go in, 
tea and silk go out; the traders bargain, the 
missionaries preach,— and the gunboat renders all 
possible. Meantime the Chinese devote the in- 
creased resources they acquire through foreign trade 
to building arsenals, casting cannon, laying up 
stores of shot and shell. English residents in China, 
and those who have friends in the country, receive 
the news of every trifling local disturbance with 
anxiety — for Europeans there are living on the edge 
of a volcano, and no one can tell when the next 
eruption may break out. 

This animosity is a barrier to the progress of 
trade and introduction of improvements. Our mer- 
chants ask for increased facilities of trade and they 
are refused. They propose to place steamers on the 
inland waters and meet with a rebufi; Railways, 
telegraphs, coal-mining, gold-mining — everything 
is persistently opposed. A line of railway is 
offered as a gift to the Emperor and is refused. 



BESULTS OP THE BEITISH OPICTM POLICY. 173 

This unreasonable antagonism to all introduction 
of foreign methods and appliances for the develop- 
ment of the resources of China is an injury to 
us, but it is a thousandfold injury to China itself. 
The civilization of the country, the increased 
knowledge, comfort, happiness, of three hundred 
millions of the human race are retarded, and many 
generations to come may be defrauded of them — ^and 
why ? The proximate cause is Chinese hostility to 
us ; but what is the cause of that hostility ? Let 
any one read Williamson's " Travels in North China," 
and ho will gain some notion of the magnificent 
natural capabilities of the country, of its inex- 
haustible mineral resources. The loss to China, the 
loss to the world, through the neglect of these is 
beyond all power of estimating. Our coal supply in 
England threatens to come to an end : yet we ship 
cargo after cargo every year to the far East, em- 
ploymg our vessels and ouV sailors in carrying more 
than half round the world the mineral which exists 
already stored up there in the soil. And this is but 
one small item in the altogether incalculable total 
loss which results from an animosity we have done 
our best to deserve. 

Finally, this anti-foreign animus of the Chinese is 
an almost insuperable barrier to their reception of 
the Gospel. Some measure of opposition to Chris- 
tianity for its own sake was only to be expected. 
Old faiths, old prejudices, will not submit to be 
overthrown and swept away without a struggle. If 
the Chinese followers of Confucius cannot bear to 



f 



r 



174 BRITISH OPIUM POLICf. 

hear his supremacy assailed by a strange name un- 
known to their fathers, without impatience and 
wrath, this is only analogous to the course of human 
nature in general. But, besides all this, opium has 
created an immense obstacle to the patient hearing 
of the claims of Christianity. " By their fruits ye 
shall know them," the heathen cry : and the better- 
educated class, those who take a more intelligent 
interest in national affairs, stop their ears against 
the sound of the Gospel, and, as far as their authority 
extends, prevent every one else from hearing it/ 

Such are the results of British opium policy. Our 
pitiful dependence upon a dishonourable traffic for 
the support of our empire, and the encouragement 
of a destructive vice among the Chinese, alone con- 
demn the policy past all defence. But to the 
thoughtful mind contemplating the great world- 
drama of Humanity, slowly enacting through the 
ages, perhaps the ulterior consequences will seem 
altogether to surpass in magnitude of evil these 
direct visible results. Great Britain, by its sove- 
reignty of India and pre-eminent influence in China, 
wields a mighty influence over the destinies of more 
than half the human race. For a Uttle while (who 



* In 1869 Dr. Hcherewesckj, of the American Episcopal 
> Mission, visited Kaifengfa, the capital of Honan, to inquire into 

the condition of the remnant of the Jews residing there. A mob, 

collected by the literati, drove him from the city, shouting after 

him, '' You killed our Emperor ; you destroyed our summer 

[ palace; you bring poison here to ruin us ; and now you come to 

' teach us virtue ! " This was a forcible expression of objections 

familiar to every missionary. 



RESULTS OF THE BRITISH OPIUM POLICY. 175 

can say for how long ?) the hegemony of the world is 
ours. For the time being we are peaceful, rich, and 
powerful — better fitted than any other people to 
meet the demands of this vast empire and influence 
upon our resources. Never since mankind began 
has any nation had so splendid an opportunity as 
that which is now put into our hands. We are 
summoned to pour the new life-blood of our religion, 
our liberty, our commerce, our science, our educa- 
tion, into the stagnant veins of the dying East. A 
right and noble discharge of our national duty now 
would go far towards regenerating the world, and 
bringing in the golden age. What then can be com- 
parable in importance to this, that Great Britain 
should have a clear conscience and an unselfish 
aim ? We have the material resources, we have the 
physical force : what we want is the moral character, 
that we may use our unexampled opportunity for 
the welfare of mankind. But what avails our pro- 
fession of desire to wield our sceptre in the highest 
interests of humanity, whilst this opium-scandal 
remains P While British supremacy rests upon the 
opium revenue, our national glory is rotten at ite 
foundation ; our national character is a hindrance to 
the progress of truth, righteousness, and peace 
among the vast nations of the East, and our national 
bad repute fearfully counteracts the efforts of private 
individuals amongst us to do good to our oriental 
fellow-creatures. Perhaps the worst result of our 
opium revenue is, that it chains us to the low stan- 
dard of political morality which suffered its growth. 



CHAPTER VIII. 

PEOPOSITIONS FOB AN AMENDED OPIUM POLICY. 

If any clear lesson is derivable from our retrospect 
of British opium policy, it is this, that we have been 
led astray by the golden lure of an abundant and 
easily-gotten revenue. We must demand, therefore, 
both as proof of repentance, and as indispensable 
basis for a new line of policy that the revenue must 
be abandoned, so far as it interferes with our doing 
justice to our own people and to China. We say 
so far as justice demands, because free trade in 
opium would be a worse evil than the present state 
of things, and unless the cultivation of the poppy be 
absolutely interdicted throughout our empire, taxa- 
tion, in some form, would be a simple necessity. In 
a previous chapter we contended that the true prin- 
ciple on which such articles should be made subjects 
of taxation is that taxation limits consumption, and 
so tends to check the abuses consequent upon it. 
According to this principle, the aim of Government 
is to diminish, not to multiply consumption, and the 
income accruing from taxation is not its primary 
object. If, then, we would rectify the errors of our 



PROPOSITIONS FOB AN AMENDFD OPIUM POLICY, 177 

opium policy, we must be prepared to sacrifice a 
portion, if not the whole, of our present gains from 
it. Unless we start with this honest determination, it 
is vain to seek expedients for improvement. While 
the cry is, "We cannot do without the revenue," 
no proposal of change will get an impartial hearing, 
or every attempted reform will be but a cliange of 
form, not a substantial remedy. We must come to 
the firm resolve tliat we will consent no longer to 
maintain our Indian empire by a revenue derived 
from the vices of mankind, and upheld by our phy- 
sical force against the claims of justice. Let us do 
right, and let the revenue go. When this is our 
sincere language ; when we are prepared to abolish 
an unrighteous trade, and to bear the loss ; then we 
may, .without hypocrisy, take in hand to consider 
what is actually required of us, and how we may 
best set our house in order. 

It would be folly to disguise the fact that this 
sacrifice would involve serious difficulty. This is 
not an essay on Indian finance, nor is the writer an 
expert on that subject. But the Parliamentary 
Reports make it quite clear that to do away with, or 
only to cripple, the opium revenue would be cutting 
off the right arm of Indian resources. Seven mil- 
lions out of a revenue of 50,000,000/. ; the boldest 
financier will hesitate before he lightly tampers with 
such a sum as that. A source of income of such 
magnitude would be treated with the greatest 
solicitude even in an English budget ; in India, it 
seems like proposing self-destruction to suggest 

N 



178 BRITISH OPIUM POLICY, 

interference with it. And now, at this point of our 
discussion, we find that the old recommendation of 
the opium revenue, " that it is drawn from 
foreigners," cuts our own fingers. If we were 
advocating the abandonment of our excise revenue 
in England, by some measure that contemplated the 
extinction of the drinking customs of the country, 
the immediate loss to the revenue would be immense, 
but the saving to the country by the cessation of 
wasteful and injurious expenditure would be so 
much vaster, that it could easily bear some new 
form of taxation to replace the abandoned excise. 
Not so in this case ; for the opium, which produces 
all but a mere fraction of the revenue, is consumed 
out of India. The loss would fall upon the Indian 
treasury; the material and moral gain would be 
enjoyed by the Chinese. The inhabitants of India 
are not responsible for the opium policy, although 
they have enjoyed its proceeds. To distress India 
in order to relieve China, would be to inflict unde- 
served hardship. Thus we are placed in a grave 
dilemma. 

The present writer frankly confesses that he has 
for long regarded England's connexion with opium 
with a feeling of hopelessness. Nations, like indi- 
viduals, may bring upon themselves evil conse- 
quences of their follies and crimes, from which even 
repentance seems to hold out no way of escape. 
Strenuous exertion may break the chain of evil habit, 
and yet its consequences linger on long after it is 
broken. England paid twenty millions to clear her-. 



PROPOSITIONS FOB AN AMENDED OPIUM POLICY. 179 

self from the blood-guiltiness of Negro slavery ; but 
we are not clear of its consequences to-day. It seems 
but a little while since the savage outbreak of the 
negroes in Jamaica, and the deplorable excesses of 
our own officers, demonstrated that the melancholy 
legacy of slavery is not yet paid up in full. Do we, 
then, think that our noble effort to atone for the 
wrong was in vain ? 

For answer, look at the United States. Contem- 
plate the fearful penalty they had to pay for obsti- 
nate adherence to the wicked system. Agonies of a 
gigantic civil war, the blood of her best and bravest 
poured out like water, treasure that would have 
purchased the liberty of every slave in the Union 
squandered in devastating its provinces and slaugh- 
tering its citizens; and after all was over, dis- 
organization and distress, internal anarchy in the 
conquered states, and smouldering embers of fierce 
hatred which even now send up their flashes of 
wrath and bloodshed. Truly to do right, however 
late, at whatever cost, is always safest, wisest, best. 
Let us face our difficulty manfully ; let us shake off 
the palsying influence of despair, and endeavour to 
see what is the right course to take, prepared to 
endure whatever sacrifice may be required of us, 
assured that to do right is always and in every 
sense the only right thing to do. 

It seems to be accepted as an axiom by our 
Government that India must bear her own burdens, 
must pay for all the expenses of her own administra- 
tion. The wisdom and justice of this axiom cannot 

N 2 



180 BRITISH OPIUM POLICY. 

be disputed. During the recent famine in Bengal 
some voices pleaded for a grant of British money 
as a befitting exhibition of Christian philanthropy 
towards our perishing fellow-subjects. Our legis- 
lature, supported by a large share, if not the una- 
nimous concurrence, of public opinion, was deaf 
to this plea, as imnecessary, and not in the true 
interests of India. . How much more unreasonable 
it would be to propose that any- of the ordinary 
burdens of the Indian Government should be 
defrayed by the British tax-payer. We govern 
India for the good of India, and whatever were the 
faults of our fathers in the acquisition of thut 
country, whatever the blemishes and imperfections 
of our administration now, there is no doubt that 
not only do we desire that British rule should be a 
benefit to India, but that it actually is so, and that 
to an extent not easily calculable. As an ordinary 
rule, therefore, every principle of righteousness and 
fair-dealing demands that India should support the 
expenses of her own Govemmant, and that they 
should not fall upon the already heavily-burdened 
inhabitants of the British Isles. 

Is this tantamount to saying that the opium 
revenue must on no account be disturbed, at the 
peril of Indian national bankruptcy ? At first 
sight it would seem so, but a closer scrutiny gives 
us a gleam of hope. Since the failure of the Indian 
income-tax, no new tax remains to be proposed in 
India.^ But if the loss of the opium revenue cannot 

* Since the above was written, the Spectator has suggested that 



MOPOSITIOKS FOB AN AMENDED OPIUM FOLICV, 181 

be replaced by additional taxes, there is no such 
absolute impossibility of diminution of expenditure. 
The English mind is getting familiar with the sus- 
picion, that our Indian Government, though very 
good for the country, is expensive ; too expensive 
for its resources. This is not the place to enter 
upon a minute inquiry into Indian expenditure ; but 
if the opium revenue is to be touched, it will neces- 
sitate a thorough, searching scrutiny of every item 
of the accounts, which of itself would be a great 
boon to India, and perhaps in the long-run more 
than indemnify her for the loss of opium profits. 
There is an old saying which says, " Necessity is 
the mother of invention." While these annual 
millions of opium revenue continue on the books, 
reduction of expenditure may appear impossible; 
but let the opium revenue be boldly struck out 
of the account, and we may indulge a sanguine 
expectation that retrenchment may go a long way 
towards meeting the deficiency. Besides retrench- 
ment, it is possible that a Committee of the House 
of Commons instructed to discover ways and means 
to deal with Indian finance minus the opium revenue, 
might light upon, certain payments now saddled 
upon India, which properly ought to come out of 
our Exchequer. India ought to bear her own 
burdens; but are we sure that she is not now 
bearing part of ours ? An extract from a speech by 

if the opiam revenue had to be abandoned, a tax upon tobacco 
might supplj the deflciericy, though at the litk of great unpopu- 
laritj. 



182 BRITISH OPIUM POLICY. 

Mr. Fawcetfc, at the Mansion House, on Idtli April, 
1874, will explain what we mean. Mr. Fawcett 
was speaking about the proposal to assist India to 
bear the heavy burdens of this present famine by 
assistance from the English Government and objecting 
to a grant of our public money, or a guarantee ; he 
remarked, "But there is a pecuniary assistance which 
at the present time — and not only at the present 
time, but in all succeeding years — the English 
Government can render to the Indian people. If 
Lord Salisbury, one of the most influential members 
of a powerful Government, will insist that the pecu- 
niary relations between England and India should 
be revised, if he will utiUze the interest which is 
now felt in India, by insisting that India should 
bear no charge improperly — that no burden should 
be cast upon her improperly by the British Govern- 
ment — then, without any of the disadvantages of a 
grant of public money or the guarantee of a loan, he 
will render a signal and permanent service to India ; 
he will alleviate the pressure on her finances, he will 
provide her with funds which will prevent the recur- 
rence of these unfortunate famines. He will do 
something more; he will knit the two countries 
more closely together, because he will make the 
Indian people feel that our government over them is 
henceforward to be placed upon a more just and 
equitable basis. The present would scarcely be the 
occasion to enter into any detailed description of 
charges which are improperly thrown upon India by 
the English Government. No fact, however, was 



PROPOSITIONS FOR AX AMENDED OPIUM POLICY, 183 

more clearly brought out in the evidence given 
before tha Indian Finance Committee, which sat for 
three years. I am now going to quote to you the 
opinions — two very remarkable opinions. I could 
multiply them indefinitely. The language is strong, 
but it is not my language ; it is the language of men 
speaking with official experience. One who held one 
of the highest official positions in India has declared 
that Indian finance is constantly being sacrificed to 
the wishes of the Horse Guards and the exigencies of 
English estimates. Another official, with thirty-five 
years' experience of Indian office, has declared that he 
never knew a single instance where the pecuniary 
interests of England and India came into contact, 
in which India had the slightest chance of obtaining 
fair play. Let this now be done ; let the Govern- 
ment and the House of Commons carefully go 
through all the financial relations between England 
and India ; let the English Government understand 
that it is the wish of the English people, that 
because India is weak, unrepresented, and power- 
less, she should not bear a single charge which wo 
would not venture to cast upon our colonies, 
and then I am as confident as I can be of anything 
that India would derive a pecuniary assistance, 
which would be of the utmost importance to her in 
this time of severe financial pressure.*' * 

* Compare with these statemenUof Mr. Fawrr;tt^ the li4;|;ort of 
the East India Finance Committe/f, 'JHiU July, 1874. IhU 
Report deals with the militarj expenditure alotir%arid with rcniHwi 
to this states, '* Yonr Committee hare received an imitnsnnlou iUni 



184 BRITISH OPIUM POiilOr. 

The report of tliis meeting states that loud 
applause frequently interrupted Mr. Fawoett's 
remarks, and that at the close of his speech loud 
and continued applause attested that he had touched 
the right chord, in appealing to every Englishman's 
desire to do justice to India. May we take that 
influential gathering at the Mansion House, in the 
heart of the City of London, to represent the true 
feeling of Britain on this matter ? Mark well what 
Mr. Fawcett meant. He meant that now at this 
time we are doing injustice to India, in plain terms 
robbing India, by imposing upon her charges which 
ought fairly to be borne by England. He meant 
that henceforth certain charges, not a small sum, a 
sum great enough to be of the utmost importance 
to a country whose revenue is fifty millions, should 
be transferred from the Indian account to our own 
account. Is England prepared to do right in this 
matter at the expense of her own pocket ? If so, 
then there is hope that even so serious a difficulty 
as the loss of the opium revenue may be encountered 
and overcome. 

For if once our country's sense of justice is faii-ly 
awakened, determined to do right by India, we may 
be sure that it will not stop at a bare readjustment 
of burdens. If we once for all adopted a firm reso- 
tion to get rid of the opium scandal at any cost, and to 
plant our Indian Empire on the secure basis of justice 

charges have, in some instance?, been imposed upon India, which 
ought to have been borne by England." The report indicates 
that our financial relations with India require reexamination* 



PBOPOSmONS FOR AN AMENDED OPIUM POLICY. 185 

to all, we should then remember that India is encum- 
bered with this huge opium difficulty through the 
fault of another, and not through her own. Granted 
that it is a just and sound principle that India should 
pay her own Government expenses, this opium re- 
venue occupies an exceptional position. British 
policy made it what it is, and brought India to be 
dependent upon it. If the conscience of Britain cannot 
abide the opium revenue any longer, and demands 
its abrogation, then it seems only just and reasonable 
that Britain should come to the help of India if any 
temporary embarrassment should befall her, in con- 
sequence of interference with this source of income. 
After all, it must be remembered that however much 
to the advantage of India our Government of that 
country may be, we were not invited to assume that 
Government. "We did not consult the will of India, 
but possessed ourselves of the sovereignty by right 
of conquest. We are bound therefore to govern the 
country within its means. If we cannot rule India 
without availing ourselves of a revenue condemned 
by the first principles of morality, or except by the 
imposition of burdens which would be more injurious 
to the people than anything they might have to 
suffer under native rule or misrule, then we had 
better retire from India altogether. There is, 
however, no reason to apprehend that we shall find 
ourselves pushed to that humiliating extremity. 
Economy and readjustment will meet all the demands 
of the case. India can afford to pay for all the 
Government she really needs, and we must learn to 



186 BRITISH OnUM FOLIC V. 

restrict tlie machinery and operations of Government 
within the limits that she can afford to pay for. 
But it is quite probable that the loss of the opium 
millions might bring on a temporary state of insol- 
vency, when the help of her rich and powerful 
sovereign might be needed for awhile to sustain 
her credit, and bear her safely through the crisis, 
This we must be prepared to give. Until this is 
laid down as settled, it is waste of time to discuss 
any plans for amending our opium policy. But 
if it be granted that we are prepared to give up the 
revenue, so far as necessary, and to undertake the 
consequences, we may go on to consider the plans 
which have been proposed to relieve us from our 
dependence upon opium. 

The first plan, and the simplest, is the short and 
sharp method of entirely interdicting all cultivation 
of the poppy within British India, and stopping all 
exportation from the native states by the refusal of 
a passage for the drug through our territory to the 
coast. Dr. Lockhart says, " The far better plan 
would be for the Government directly to prohibit 
the growth of opium in all its territory, except for 
direct medical use, and also not to allow it even to 
pass through its territory from the independent 
states. "Whether this could be carried out as a 
political measure cannot be discussed here." Several 
years later, in the pages of the Nonconformwt^ the 
Rev. Griffith John, of Hankow, reiterated the same 
demand, " But what is wanted is absolute prohibition. 



raOPOSITIONS FOR AN AMENDED OPIUM POLICY. 187 

England should not allow this poisonous plant to be 
grown in or pass through any part of her territories, 
save for medicinal purposes. Whether this can be 
done consistently with our constitutional laws I 
must leave others to discuss. I only maintain that 
the laws of justice, honour, and fairness demand that 
England should wash her hands clean of this foul 
trade as soon as possible. She owes this to herself, 
and she owes this to China." 

This missionary demand for total prohibition is 
natural enough, because it is the Chinese demand. 
We have heard Prince Kung and Wen Seang urge 
it upon Sir Rutherford Alcock, and, through the 
ambassador, upon the British Government and the 
British public. The Chinese demand it because 
they are used to treat such matters in this way. 
Whenever anything appears to be injurious to the 
health, welfare, or morals of the people, the Chinese 
Gavernment at once attacks it by direct prohibition. 
So thoroughly accustomed are they to this mode of 
thought and action that the Chinese Government 
and people cannot easily conceive that any other 
Government could see any objections, except selfish 
ones, to this course. But it is noticeable that Dr. 
Lockhart and Mr. John urge adoption of their root- 
and-branch remedy under an expressed doubt as to its 
practicability : though they do not indicate wherein 
the impracticability may be supposed to lie. Now 
to suggest a remedy which is either impossible, or 
contrary to our constitutional laws, is equivalent to 
suggesting no remedy at all. But let us consider it 



188 SEITlSfl OPltTM PoLtor. 

for ourselves, and see if we can detect the practical 
diflSculty. 

One may dispose at once of the counter argument 
that to prohibit the poppy in India would be utterly 
useless, because if we do not supply the Chinese 
with opium, others will. They will get it from 
Turkey, from Persia, they will grow it themselves. 
They must and will have opium, and therefore we 
may as well have the profit of supplying them. To 
this we reply in a word, that we are not now plan- 
ning to save China, but to save England ; we are 
not consulting how the Chinese may be cured of an 
enslaving vice; but how we may extricate our- 
selves from an unjust and dishonourable policy. If 
the missionaries have shown us the right course to 
take, let us take it, in God's name, even though 
never a single Chinese should smoke a single ounce 
of opium the less. But, besides this, the argument 
is unsound. It is true that if the Indian supply 
were abolished next year, it would not annihilate 
the opium-smoking of China. But it would certainly 
deal the vice a grievous blow. Nearly the whole 
foreign supply is from India. If this were suddenly 
cut ofE, the remaining supply from outside would be 
insignificant, and years must elapse before it could 
swell to the dimensions of our Indian export. The 
effect on China would be electrical. The native 
opium would remain; and that would meet the 
difficulty urged by Mr. Cooper and others, that, if 
the Chinese were suddenly deprived of opium, mul- 
titudes of them would die. No doubt an utter lack 



PEOPOSITIONS FOB AN AMBNDBD OPIUM POLICY. 189 

of opitim would kill off a portion of the confirmed 
smokers. Far be any thought of cruelty from us, 
but we cannot but think that if the nation could be 
delivered finally, once for all, from the vice of 
opium-smoking, through the somewhat earlier death 
of a proportion of the more besotted smokers who 
are killing themselves already, the price paid for 
emancipation would not be too high. But there 
would not be a total lack. The native opium is 
there, and the Turkish opium would be still in the 
market. The price would be enhanced, of course, 
and the very poor smokers would die, because they 
could not afford to buy it. They do die now, how- 
ever, and this is a very serious reason for objecting 
to the opium trade altogether. It is strange to 
notice how the defenders of the monopoly contend 
in the same breath, that it would be cruelty to the 
Chinese to deprive them of our Indian opium, and 
that if we give up the trade, others will soon fill 
up the gap. If, however, the Indian Government 
were to abandon the trade, the Chinese proposition 
made to Sir R. Alcock, that both countries might 
simultaneously limit the cultivation, and abolish 
it gradually, deserves serious consideration. De- 
termined supporters of the monopoly will ridicule 
the notion of the Chinese being actuated by good 
faith, or, if so, having the slightest power to 
carry their part of the compact into execution. 
But those who look at the case impartially will see 
no reason to doubt the sincerity of the Chinese 
Government, and though their confidence in the 



190 BRITISH OPIUM POLICY. 

administrative capacity of that Government may not 
be without misgivings, it will at least be suflBcient 
to make them willing to give it a fair trial. The 
objection, therefore, that the utter extirpation of 
the poppy in India would not extinguish opium- 
smoking in China, goes for nothing. It would do 
all that we could do towards attaining that desired 
result ; it would certainly have an immense effect, 
and probably would lead to a very great per- 
manent diminution of the vice, if not to its actual 
extinction. 

Another objection, that to prohibit the poppy 
cultivation would be unjust and oppressive to our 
own subjects, and to those of the native princes 
of India, may also be easily disposed of. As to our 
own province of Bengal, the monopoly has been at 
the absolute disposal of the Government from the 
beginning of the century. Not a single private 
individual has been allowed to cultivate an acre of 
poppy at his own will and pleasure, nor have the 
ryots enjoyed the profits where they did cultivate it. 
The Government has bought the opium at its own 
fixed price, calculated so as to allow them a fair 
return for their labour, sufficient to make the toil 
popular generally, though not, it would seem, always. 
But the Government has always reserved the profits 
of the monopoly for itself, and injustice would be done 
to no individual by its relinquishing and prohibiting 
the trade altogether. The case of Malwa opium is 
more difficult. There the cultivation has been in 
private hands, and the native princes have obtainec^ 



PROPOSITIONS FOB AN AMENDED OPIUM POLICY. 191 

certain advantages from it. But our Government 
has always had and exercised the right to impose 
what duty it pleased on the opium passing through 
its territory to the sea, and if a prohibitory duty 
were imposed, no one could question the legal right. 
It might seem hard to the native that he could no 
longer enrich himself at the expense of the Chinese ; 
but he would soon see that it would be unreasonable 
to expect the British Government -to allow him to 
continue the trade after it had been stopped in 
Bengal. And, as in Calcutta, so in the west, our 
Government has all along taken the lion's share of 
the profit by the enormous duty, and would itself be 
the chief loser. A short notice given would satisfy 
all vested interests, and, after a little while, no one 
in India would be the worse. What, then, hinders 
the adoption of this simple and effectual way of 
ridding ourselves once for all of the opium difficulty? 
What is it that made the missionaries doubtful about 
their project? Simply, we believe, the practical 
impossibility of getting the mass of the English 
nation to see that this is the right course to pursue. 
We say the practical impossibility of getting 
Englishmen to see that it is their duty. We do not 
say that it is not the duty of our Government, but 
that it is hopeless to convince our people of it. It 
may seem strange that we hesitate to give a decided 
negative to the question whether it is our duty; 
tbat we regard it as quite possible that it may be 
the right thing, and yet despair of getting our 
countrymen to see it. Are Englishmen, then, so 



192 BRITISH OPIUM POLICY. 

obtuse, or so biassed by self-interest, that the right 
has no chance of gaining the day among them ? An 
immense amount of obtuseness of perception, and of 
reluctance to sacrifice personal interest, would 
undoubtedly have to be encountered by advocates of 
extirpation; but it is not that which daunts us, 
The right and the true have triumphed in England 
over all such antagonism often and often before, nor 
should we fear to attempt the struggle again. But 
the diflBculty here inheres in the nature of the case. 
Without trying to define what is the limit of Govern- 
ment action, all will agree that it will be consider- 
ably modified by the wishes and expectations of the 
governed. A law which would be arbitrary and 
unjust if enforced upon a reluctant people, may be 
righteous and good, if the sentiments of the governed 
approve or even demand it. In England, for the 
Government to say, you shall not make malt, you 
shall not distil spirits, would be regarded by the 
majority of the people as an oppressive interference 
with the liberty of the citizen. Englishmen, there- 
fore, naturally suppose that a similar legislation 
about opium in India would be oppressive to the 
people there. But would it ? We think not. In 
India, as in China, the people believe in arbitrary 
government; they expect their rulers to support 
morality by legal enactments ; they not only would 
not murmur at restrictions upon their freedom of 
action which Englishmen would not bear, but they 
positively regard it as the duty, as the raison-d/ etre 
of Government to enforce such restrictions. With 



PROPOSITIONS FOB AN AMENDED OPIUM POLICY. 193 

regard to China, we have no doubt that it is the 
clear duty of the Emperor to prohibit the cultivation 
of the poppy, not only because opium is a terrible 
blight to the physical and moral welfare of his 
subjects, but because the moral sense of the people 
demands this prohibition. The Chinese believe 
in arbitrary government and paternal legislation. 
" The Emperor," they think, " is placed over us by 
Heaven, is Heaven's visible vicegerent, to carry 
out Heaven's laws. It is his duty, his province, to 
prevent our injuring ourselves with opium, just as 
in every family the father ought to prevent his 
children from injuring themselves with it. As the 
father is clothed with authority to compel his 
children for their good, so has the Emperor a divine 
right and duty to compel us all in such matters." 
In China, therefore, the edicts ordering extirpation 
of the poppy no more offend the moral sense of 
the people, than do the edicts intended to repress 
brigandage. 

What is the difference between India and China 
in this respect ? We doubt if there is any. Let 
any one read the evidence given by persons well 
acquainted with India to the Select Committee, and 
ho will see abundant reason to conclude that the 
arbitrary paternal idea of Government is much more 
natural to the Hindoo mind than our English notion 
of representative Government, and non-interference 
with individual liberty. A Maine Liquor Law would 
probably be highly popular in India, and if we could 
see the Hindoo or the Mussulman's mental interior, 





194 ^ BRITISH OPIUM POLICY. 

we should most likely discover that he believes the 
British Government does not pass such a law, not 
from any respect for individual liberty, but because 
the Sahib himself likes his brandy-pawnee too well ; 
and because the excise is profitable to the treasury- 
Extirpation of opium might be very unpopular, for 
a brief time, among a very small minority who now 
make profit out of it, but probably would receive the 
emphatic approval of the millions. Now this con- 
currence of the people is a most essential element 
in considering the duty of a Government: if our 
Government could confer a great moral benefit 
upon the people committed to their charge, and 
check or annihilate a vicious practice, and if the 
people themselves would give their moral support to 
legislation towards such ends, it seems difficult to 
assign reasons why it is not the duty of Government 
to do so. 

But the moment we pass out of the oriental 
atmosphere of despotism into the free air of English 
individual liberty and responsibility, one perceives 
the practical impossibility of convincing John Bull 
of this. It is not now a Board of Directors meeting 
in Leadenhall Street which we have to convince, nor 
is it her Majesty's ministers for the time being, nor 
even the two Houses of Parliament. If the opium 
monopoly were a mere matter of detail in Indian 
administration, if it involved only a few hundreds of 
thousands which India would hardly miss out of her 
fifty millions, all we should have to do would be to 
convince those leading Indian officials whose counsel 



PBOPOSmONS FOR AN AMENDKD OPIUM POLICY. 195 

in sucli matters the British Govemment would be 
sare to respect and adopt. But the question is far 
too important to be settled by any cabinet council, 
or even by a momentary expression of opinion in the 
House of Commons. No Government could venture 
to touch it, unless assured that popular opinion in 
England demanded the change, and would support 
the Government in the searching investigations, the 
great financial reforms, and the possible transfer of 
a portion of the Indian burdens to English shoulders 
which would be required to carry out a legislative 
prohibition of the poppy. We believe that the 
heart of England is sound, and that the nation 
would support a just and right policy towards India 
and China, even at the cost of personal sacrifice. 
But then the nation will demand to have it clearly, 
overwhelmingly, proved that this is the right course 
to take, before it will consent to reconstruct the 
whole system of Indian finance, and take upon 
itself pecuniary burdens from which it is now free. 
Who is there that entertains the faintest hope of 
convincing the great majority of the English people 
that we ought absolutely to prohibit poppy-cultiva- 
tion in India ? We cannot prove that opium is a 
greater curse abroad than alcohol is at home. 
Englishmen pride themselves upon logical con- 
sistency, and they think that if they allow them- 
selves the liberty of dealing in, and intoxicating 
themselves by ardent spirits, then logical consistency 
requires them to allow Asiatics full licence to 
narcotize themselves with opium if they please* 

2 



196 BRITISH OPIUM POLICY, 

Then there is the real difficulty of defining what are 
the proper limits of Government interference in such 
matters. The majority of Englishmen do not believe 
in the attempt to create virtue by Act of Parliament. 
If we say that as regards India, we, the British 
nation, exercise despotic sovereignty, occupying to 
them a position analogous to that which the 
Emperor of- China holds towards his subjects, we 
shall be met with the reply, that as we do not 
believe in despotic Government in morals and 
religion, it is not reasonable to expect us to apply it 
to India, that it is rather our desire to train the 
Indian people up to our standard of self-govern- 
ment, than to descend to their lower political level : 
moreover, objectors will point to the failure of the 
paternal despotism in China in its effort to put 
down this very vice. In fine, the proposal to 
extirpate the poppy for the preservation of morality 
in and outside of our own territory, is but a par- 
ticular instance of a general principle which is 
strenuously advocated by a number of excellent 
men, but at present has found comparatively small 
favour with the nation at large. When we are 
generally agreed that it is within the province and 
duty of Government to guard the people from 
temptation by the absolute removal of exciting 
causes, then we may expect that opium will be 
included among the articles prohibited as noxious to 
public virtue. At present, however, we have not 
got so far as to concur in the advisability of passing 
the Permissive Bill, and no one ventures so much as 



PROPOSITIONS POE AN AMENDED OPIUM POLICY. 197 

to suggest a Maine Liquor Law for Great Britain. 
Until some such measure as at least the milder of 
these two has attained the support of a majority of 
the British nation, it would be hopeless to expect 
the nation to legislate for the extirpation of the 
poppy in India. Such a proposition, therefore, 
can only be regarded as a protest against an evil, 
not as a step towards practical remedy. 

The proposition we must next consider comes to 
us with the recommendation of the great name of 
Lord Lawrence, than which higher authority on 
Indian affairs could hardly be adduced. Not haying 
succeeded in procuring his original letter, we quote 
Dr. Lockhart. "Sir John Lawrence has given 
advice which, if adopted, would at least relieve the 
Government from the odium of being an opium 
merchant. Let it withhold the advances to the 
cultivation, break up its opium godowns, have no 
part in the monopoly; and instead of the profit 
arising from trading in the drug, charge it with a 
hoavy export duty as it passes through Calcutta, 
doing in Bengal what is done in Bombay in this 
particular. The Government would thus be fi^eed 
from the anomalous position which it now occupies 
before the world, and the entire responsibility rest 
on the opium merchants, and others who engage in 
the opium trafl&c." 

Sir William Muir, in a Minute ' dated 22nd Feb- 
ruary, 1868, advocates an inquiry into the desirability 

' Calcutta Blue Book, 1870, p. 1. 



198 BRITISH OPIUM POLICY. 

of giving up the monopoly for the Malwa pass- 
system, on these grounds : — 

" Primd facie the change proposed would remove 
a blemish from the Administration without imperil- 
ling the finances. That cannot be an edifying 
position for the Government to occupy, in which it 
has to determine year by year the quantity of opium 
which it will bring to sale, in which there is a 
constant inducement for it to trim the market, and 
in which its haste to secure wider harvests and 
larger returns has repeatedly recoiled upon the 
trade, stimulated baneful speculation and gambling 
in Central and Western India, and ended in much 
misery. I do not speak of the undignified aspect of 
the British Government growing, manufacturing, 
and selling the drug — performing, in fact, all the 
functions of producer and speculator. I will merely 
ask what the impression is upon the mind when wo 
see Holkar performing the functions of opium trader, 
which are now discharged by the Government of 
Bengal. 

" The change would relieve the British Govern- 
ment from the odious imputation of pandering to 
the vice of China by over-stimulating production, 
over-stocking the market, and flooding China with 
the drug, in order to raise a wider and more secure 
revenue to itself — an imputation, of which at least 
on one occasion, I fear that we are not wholly guilt- 
less. A few years ago, when the Government of 
Bengal was straining every nerve to extend the 
cultivation of the poppy, I was witness to the 



PROPOSITIONS FOB AN AMENDED OPIUM POLICY. 199 

discontent of the agricultural population in certain 
districts west of the Jumma, from which the crop 
was for the first time being raised. Where the 
system of advances has long been in vogue, and the 
mode of preparing the drug well understood, no 
doubt the poppy is a popular crop; though even 
there the system of Government monopoly gives to 
Government officers a power of interference over 
those who have once taken their advances, which 
must be liable to abuse. But the case to which I 
allude was that of new districts where the poppy 
had not hitherto been grown, and into which the 
Bengal Board were endeavouring to extend the 
cultivation by the bait of large advances among an 
unwilling peasantry, and at the risk of inoculating 
them with a taste for a deleterious drug, and all 
this with the sole view of securing a, wider area of 
poppy cultivation, and thus a firmer grasp of the 
China market. Witnessing this when on circuit in 
1864, the impropriety of the position was to my 
mind so painful that, as the Governor-General may 
perhaps recollect, I ventured at the time to address 
his Excellency directly on the subject. 

" By retiring from the monopoly the Government 
of India will avoid these and all other' unseemly 
imputations. China wants opium : our traders and 
merchants are ready to supply it. The licence duty 
will support the revenue, and thus the action of 
Government will be that of check, and no longer of 
stimulus. The fluctuations in the demands of China 
will be met, in the ordinary course of trade, by 



200 BRITISH OPIUM POLICY. 

corresponding variations in the supply from India. 
The area of cultivation will be adjusted by the direct 
action of the Chinese themselves, upon speculators 
and producers, and will no longer depend upon the 
arbitrary will of the Government." 

Sir William Muir's recommendation is that the 
Government should retire gradually from its opium 
business, giving facilities to private capitalists to 
purchase the buildings and stock, so that no sudden 
shock would affect the trade. He calculates that a 
tax of Rs. 700 per chest, both on Bengal and 
Bombay opium, would bring in a revenue of six 
millions, half a million more than the average of the 
five years preceding his Minute. The Government 
would not throw the trade entirely open, but still 
retain a restrictive power by permitting manufacture 
only under a system of licences, and he also suggests 
a licence fee of three or five rupees per acre for 
cultivation. 

Nothing could more palpably exhibit the impossi- 
bility of any proposition whatever receiving a fair 
and impartial consideration from bigoted supporters 
of the monopoly, than the various replies to this 
temperate and well-considered proposal which are 
on record in the Calcutta Blue-books. It is curious 
that while " the Governor of Bombay in council can 
only see that the reasons advanced for the change 
appear to be of the greatest weight :" * and Mr. L. 
Reid, Commissioner of Customs in Bovibayy writes, 
" the disadvantages of the Government monopoly 

' Calcutta Blue Book, 1870, p. 13. 



PROPOSITIONS FOB AN AMENDED OPIUM POLICY. 201 

are so clearly pointed out that its further retention 
will surely find no advocacy, and its death-knell 
may well be sounded :" ' the officials on the Bengal 
side can see nothing whatever but misapprehension 
and absurdity in all the objections brought against 
the monopoly. Arguments have been brought for- 
ward by Bengal civilians in defence of the monopoly 
which, to ordinary minds, would tell powerfully 
against it. One is that if the Government cease 
to make advances, "a very large portion of the 
hereditary cultivators will abandon the cultivation 
of the poppy plant, and take to other remunerative 
crops ; and after the cultivation of the poppy has 
been once abandoned, it will be most difficult to re- 
establish it." ® And the very people who advance 
this argument, in the very same paper, are astonished 
at Sir W. Muir and others for proposing to abolish 
the monopoly, because then the poppy "will be grown 
in small patches for local consumption in almost 
every village and hamlet in Bengal," and the whole 
population of India will be exposed to the evil of an 
unrestricted supply of the drug. But when we find 
persons gravely arguing that " the drug, which in 
its pure state is not pernicious, if not used to excess, 
will be rendered so by adulteration with all sorts of 
deleterious ingredients," we can only marvel at the 
pitch of fanatic admiration of their profitable system 
to which these gentlemen have arrived. It is 
quite intelligible that opium merchants like Messrs* 

* Ibid,, same page. 

* Ecport East ludia FLaanoe, 1871, Appendix, p. 525. 



202 BRITISH OPIUM POLICY. 

Jardine, Matheson, and Co., should regard their be- 
loved drug as heaven's chief blessing to China ; but 
it is almost past belief that any men not biassed bj 
direct pecuniary considerations should put forth such 
arguments as these. 

Most surprising of all is the apparent inability to 
see the immorality of the monopoly. Its advocates 
are too blind to be called wilfully blind ; they must 
have become actually blind. Sir E. Temple, " does 
not see the moral objections to the monopoly, and, 
if there be such, the change proposed would not set 
them right." Mr. H. S. Maine expresses himself 
more forcibly still : " the true moral wrong, if wrong 
there be, consists in selling opium to the Chinese, 
and the only way of abating it would be absolutely 
to prohibit the cultivation of the poppy in British 
India, and to prevent the exportation of opium from 
the Native States. The British Government is suffi- 
ciently despotic to effect this ; and, for moral pur^ 
poses, there is no distinction bettceen what a despotic 
Government does itself j and what it permits its subjects 
to do.^^ '' It really is a fine psychological study, to 
hear such men produce such arguments, and 
evidently in perfect good faith. It proves what we 
said before, that while the revenue is allowed to 
remain, it is vain to expect clear moral vision about 
opium. A mighty shower of gold is continually 
falling around these otherwise able and keen-sighted 
men, and it blinds them as completely as ever snow- 
storm blinded bewildered traveller. Nothing wil 

^ Calcutta Blue Book, 1870, p. 9. . 



PROPOSITIONS FOB AN AMENDED OPIUM POLICY. 203 

enlighten them ; but we may try the effect of an 
illustration or two. The British Government is 
sufficiently despotic in India to close a considerable 
number, if not all the idol temples : therefore its 
not doing so is exactly equivalent to its building 
and endowing those temples. Here in England, 
our Government is sufficiently despotic to put down 
horse-races, therefore, until Parliament interferes 
with the turf, our Government is in fact equally 
responsible as if it supported the races by grants of 
public money and conducted them by Government 
salaried jockeys. But why accumulate illustrations ? 
The fallacy of these arguments is obvious. There is 
a vast deal of difference between what a Government 
does, and what it merely tolerates. "Whether it is 
right to permit private individuals to grow opium 
for sale to the Chinese is one question; whether 
our Indian Government ought itself to grow it is 
quite another. There may be, in fact there is, 
considerable difference of opinion about the first 
question : there is none whatever about the second, 
except among those suffering from gold-blindness. 

"But,'* in effect, say Sir R. Temple and Mr. Maine, 
" Sir William Muir promises us as good a revenue 
under his system as we enjoy now with the monopoly. 
It's as broad as it's long. India grows the opium ; 
China smokes it : our Government gets the money. 
Where is the practical difference ?" This hits the 
blemish of Sir W. Muir's scheme. It is permeated 
by far too tender a concern for the revenue. Granted 
that if such a scheme had been carried on from the 



204 BRITISH OPIUM POLICY. 

first, our Indian Government would be free from the 
shameful reproach under which it now labours ; we 
must remember that the monopoly has been an 
existing fact during the whole of this century, and 
for the Government to place all the results of its 
long years of application of capital and talent to the 
drug-business at the disposal of private capitalists 
is something more than mere permission of private 
enterprise. One may confidently affirm that if the 
Indian Government had from the first left opium 
alone, except as an object to be taxed as heavily as 
it would bear, the opium revenue would never have 
become what it is. To withdraw now in such a 
cautious gradual manner, as to invite, even assist, 
private capitahsts to enter into all our business, and 
secure to us an equal return, though in another form, 
is not an honest and thorough abandonment of the 
monopoly. It would be morally a slight improvement 
of our position, and would demand some degree of 
sacrifice for the sake of principle; because the 
change could not be effected without risk, and, once 
effected, the Government's direct responsibility would 
cease, and with it would cease its direct power to 
raise a revenue from opium. However slowly and 
cautiously the transfer of the trade from public to 
private hands might be effected ; when once trans- 
ferred, it might languish for want of capital, from 
dislike of the ryots to their new employers, from 
other unforeseen reasons; and the Government would 
then be unable to interfere, but would be left to the 
risks of the market. But on the other hand, the 



B^rnoxs lOE AS mca^EO onm ivukt. 205 



transfer oi the trade to private speculators ir.ij^J bo 
attended with opposite results. In principle the 
change would be admirable, but if in practice the 
result should turn out to be an increase of the pro- 
duction, it would be a calamitr. The last state 
would be worse than the first. We must scrutinise 
the plan more narrowly. 

Does Sir William Muir's proposition entirely satisfy 
the demands of justice ? We think not. Are wo 
then shut up to Sir R. Temple's reductio ad ahsurdmn 
of total prohibition ? Again, we think not. Justice 
and morality demand that Grovemment should with- 
draw altogether from encouragement to the opium 
manufacture ; and, if it takes revenue at all, tnko 
only that amount which accrues from taxation 
honestly meant to have a restrictive force. Tlio 
interference of Government hitherto has been two- 
fold, first in production, then in the sale of tho 
article produced. The Government has devoted 
capital, the service of its own agents, and its in- 
fluence among the people to produce opium, and it 
has devoted its military and naval force and tho 
influence over China acquired thereby to sustain tho 
sale of opium. Both of these illegitimate inter- 
ferences with the course of trade should bo at 
once abandoned. What would be the result? In 
India the withdrawal of Government capital, energy 
and influence would, in all probability greatly 
diminish the area of land devoted to the poppy, and 
at once reduce the production. Having resolved 
that our object is not to save the existing revenue, 



206 BRITISH OPIUM POLICY. 

there is no reason for any gradual relinquishment of 
the business. When existing contracts are fulfilled, 
the Government should at once divest itself of its 
association with the manufacture, by summarily 
disposing of the buildings and implements, careless 
whether or not they be purchased by persons intend- 
ing to use them for their former purpose. It can 
hardly be doubted, that this withdrawal of the 
Government from the opium trade would for a time 
seriously lessen the producing power of the Bengal 
poppy districts, and lead to a considerable extent 
of the land being reclaimed from the poppy for the 
production of other crops. This diminished pro- 
duction in Bengal would of course raise the price 
of Malwa opium. The Government has the power 
of meeting this advanced price by an increase in the 
duty, which would prevent the abandonment of the 
monopoly being attended by an augment-ed pro- 
duction in the native states. When the shock of 
the transition had passed, the Government would 
have nothing more to do with opium except to levy 
the highest duty possible, compatible with the pre- 
vention of smuggling. The Malwa opium is under 
control already. In Bengal the taxation might take 
the three forms, of a licence for cultivation at so 
many rupees per beegah, a licence for manufacture, 
which should bring the private factories under 
Government inspection, and a pass-duty on each 
chest, before it began its passage to the coast, or 
was taken up for internal consumption. When all 
these changes were fairly established, the Govern- 



PEOPOSITIONS FOB AN AMENDED OPIUM POLICY. 207 

ment would be free from its anomalous connexion 
with the production and traflGic in a deleterious 
article, not without a temporary loss of revenue, 
possibly with a permanent diminution of it. 

This would remedy one side of the Government's 
opium error, but the other still remains, the sup- 
port of the sale by undue influence upon the 
Chinese Government. We cannot pretend to make 
amends for the past without restoring to China that 
full autonomy in respect to opium of which we have 
deprived her. We must give to the Chinese Govern- 
ment its natural right of imposing any amount of 
import duty upon Indian opium, or of prohibiting its 
introduction altogether. Not only must we withdraw 
from the coercion hitherto put upon China, but 
must take precautions in future that our subjects do 
not infringe the Chinese laws as in times past. If 
the introduction of opium is again made illegal, we 
must no longer permit British ships and merchants 
to violate Chinese laws with a high hand. 

This last suggestion, reasonable as it is, will be 
received with intense disgust by those who would 
revive the old smuggling trade, if let alone. They 
will visit the proposition with contempt, and accuse 
him of Sinophobia who thinks that China ought to 
be treated with real equity, and not cheated by the 
mockery of a mere semblance of upright dealing, 
who sincerely desires to act to an inferior power on 
the principle " do as you would be done by,*' instead 
of snatching at all the advantages which the mate- 
rial and moral inferiority of China places within 



208 BBITISH OPICM POLICY. 

the reach of a strong and unscrupulous nation. The 
contempt which such people would express for our 
intellect and patriotism, we can bear with equa- 
nimity, regarding it indeed as an honour. To 
disinterested and impartial judges it will be easy 
to establish the simple justice and indispensable 
necessity of our proposal. Those who have 
attentively perused the historical part of this essay, 
cannot fail to have been struck with the strange 
fact that English merchants and shipmasters on the 
coast of China occupied a position from 1833 to 
1812, which was practically independent of all law. 
Previous to 1833 the East India Company had the 
control of the trade, and their superintendent sta- 
tioned at Canton had power to expel any trader 
from the port who should infringe the regulations, 
or so misconduct himself as to provoke a breach of 
the peace between the nations. The Company acted 
the part of King liOg, so far as smuggling was con- 
cerned ; but they had the power if they liked to use 
it. They withheld their own agents and ships from 
engaging in the illicit traflfic, and might also have 
restrained all others who only enjoyed the privilege 
of entrance into the trade by their permission. But 
after the British Government succeeded to the Com- 
pany's management of the commerce, even this 
power of expelling unworthy traders was withdrawn 
from the new superintendents. The Sovereign 
under his own royal sign manual authorized his 
representatives to give good advice in any amount 
and of any kind he might think proper ; but carefully 



# 



PROroSITIONS FOR AN AMENDED OPIUM POLICY. 209 

abstained from clothing him with any power to 
insure obedience to his instructions. The conse- 
quence was that when the critical period arrived. 
Captain Elliot occupied the undignified position of 
a hen cackling to her brood of young ducklings who 
will take to the water. When the power of a 
simple police magisti*ate to arrest those who 
threaten to provoke a breach of the peace, might 
have saved England and China from a long, bloody, 
and expensive war, disastrous to China's prosperity 
and to England's reputation, H.M. Representative 
found himself deserted by his own Government, and 
compelled to solicit the Chinese officials to support 
his orders, by their physical force. 

After the Pottinger treaty, the opium smugglers 
were practically more independent of law than before. 
The Chinese now dared not touch them : the 
English Government would not. If an indiscreet 
official thought that his country's honour required 
that the treaty should be carried out on both sides 
in good faith, he was removed to a distant station, 
to " teach him not to interfere with the enterprises 
of British subjects." Consuls and naval officers 
quick to resent any Chinese infraction of the treaty 
were applauded for their zeal; but while British 
subjects openly violated Chinese laws, they must 
stand by with folded arms. All this of course was 
necessary while the British Government manufac- 
tiu'ed and sold the drug which these law^'breakers 
were introducing into China. And if we were going 
to revive the miserable spectacle of those shameful 



210 BRITISH OPIUM POLICY. 

years, it would be better to continue as we aro ; a 
legalized trade based upon armed force is hardly so 
bad as an illegal trade winked at by our Qovei'n- 
ment, and enjoying its moral, more properly its im- 
moral, support. An outcry would be raised against 
the absurdity of the British Government's doing 
custom-house duty for the Chinese. * Surely it is 
their business to defend their own revenue, not 
ours;' and so forth. Yet we have done internal 
military duty for the Chinese, by lending them sub- 
stantial aid towards putting down the Taeping 
rebellion. We have done water-police duty for the 
Chinese by despatching our gun-boats against 
pirates. We have actually done custom-house 
work for the Chinese by lending them the men for 
an Imperial customs' service composed principally 
of English subjects. All this we have done, and no 
one saw any absurdity in it; but to prevent English- 
men from continuing an open, notorious violation of 
Chinese law would have been "absurd," while an 
opium revenue had to be collected out of Chinese 
pockets for India. But if only we are honestly 
determined that that opium revenue is to be aban- 
doned to its fate, if we are prepared to pay for the 
loss of it, if need be, there will be no diflSculty in 
showing the essential rectitude of our coercing all 
would-be smugglers of our own nation. 

First, the obligation rests upon us in common 
fairness, because we know the inability of the Chinese 
Government in former times to cope with the wealth 
and the daring of English opium-smugglers. The in- 



PliOrOSITlOXS FOR AN AMENDED OPIUM POLICT. 211 

tercourse between Great Britain and China is not tlie 
equal intercourse of two great nations which have at- 
tained to the same degree of civilization. As between 
England and France, or England and Germany, it is 
fair enough to say to the other party, we will protect 
our coasts and our customs, do you protect yours. 
It would not be fair to China, because the weakness 
of its Government and the venality of its oflBcials 
would make it mockery to leave her a helpless prey 
to the practices of our illicit traders. The Chinese 
Government did not invite us to China, does not 
want us in China. We have forced our commerce 
upon an unwilling people, and the least we can do 
is to enforce upon our own citizens the observance 
of the stipulations of those treaties which we 
extorted from China on their behalf. It would be 
more decent at once to demand an annual tribute of 
seven millions sterling from the Chinese than to 
force them to a commercial intercourse, and, while 
pretending to recognize their rights, to exact the 
annual millions through the medium of illicit trans* 
actions connived at by our Government. 

Not only common fairness would demand this re- 
straint of our own people, but the obligation may be 
logically deduced from the very text of our treaties. 
We have said there was a period of several years when 
British subjects on the coast of China were practically 
outside the pale of law, at least so far as opium was 
concerned. But now we have treaty regulations by 
which the British Government claims and exercises 
exclusive jurisdiction over its own citizens through- 

r 2 



212 BttlTISn OPIUM POLICY. 

out the remotest districts of the Chinese Empire. 
These are what are popularly referred to as the 
ex-territoriality clauses. By these all British sub- 
jects, whether resident in the ports, or travelling in 
the interior, are as independent of all Chinese laws 
as if they were walking the pavement of Regent- 
street. The one sole right allowed to the Chinese 
Government, even to the Emperor himself, is that 
of handing over the offender against Chinese law to 
the nearest Consul for trial. This exemption fi*om 
Chinese jurisdiction entailed the necessity of clothing 
British officials with authority over residents and 
travellers in China, and considerable powers have 
been given to the Consuls and the Judicial tribunal 
at Shanghai for this purpose. The responsibility 
for the good conduct of British subjects has there- 
fore been openly assumed. True, Lord Elgin 
inserted an article into the treaty,* implying that 
the Chinese Government would be left to take care 
of itself so far as the revenue was concerned. But 
this exception in favour of British smugglers, 
necessary when the introduction of opium had not 
yet been legalized, and our policy was to preserve 
the opium revenue at any cost, ought surely now to 
be treated as obsolete. If we honestly determine to 
give up the opium revenue, there no longer exists 
a reason for keeping in the treaty a clause so 
utterly out of harmony with its spirit. Let the 
clause be erased, and let Britain engage to do 

• Article xlvi. Vide Correspondence relating to Lord Elgin's 
Mission, p. 353. 



PROPOSITIONS FOR AN AMENDED OPIUM POLICY. 213 

her utmost to control British subjects in Chinese 
waters. 

Without a distinct provision of this kind it would 
be hypocrisy to pretend to aUow China her natural 
right to prohibit opium. The great wealth of the 
trade, the enterprise and unscrupulousness of those 
engaging in it, the corruption of a vast number of 
the Chinese petty officials, the inefficiency of the 
Chinese police, would render the renewal of smug- 
gling on the most extensive scale probable. If 
bribery failed, the traders could and would employ 
armed steamers, the swiftness and armament of 
which would set Chinese naval cruisers at defiance ; 
unless, indeed, the employment of foreign appliances, 
and the engagement of foreigners in their service, 
should render the Chinese more of a match for the 
smugglers than they used to be. 

If the mpral sense of the British nation does not 
demand the absolute interdiction of the poppy in 
India, it certainly would not support any proposal 
to compel China to receive the drug against its will. 
The Chinese Government, as a friendly Government 
living in peaceful intercourse with us, is entitled to 
expect our full, explicit assurance that henceforth 
we will respect its natural right to legislate, ac- 
cording to its conscience and political views, not 
according to ours, in this matter. Our past con- 
duct makes this necessary, although it carries with 
it the painful necessity of self-condemnation. 
Appeal has already been made to us, in the very 
form we ourselves fixed. We made it our object for 



214 nRITISH OPIUM POLICY. 

years to get a representative of the Britisli crown 
settled at Peking, in order that he might be the 
means of communication ' between the Chinese 
Government and our own. After our last war we 
succeeded in obtaining the fulfilment of our long- 
cherished aim. Our ambassador has lived in Peking, 
and the Chinese Government made use of the oppor- 
tunity of his presence, to bring this matter formally 
before his notice. Not satisfied with personal con- 
versation, they put their demand in wiiting. That 
demand is not couched in ambiguou^s terms. It 
plainly seeks the annulling of those regulations 
which bind the Chinese to admit our opium under 
duty. If we refuse the demand, we are actually 
still forcing opium into China at the sword^s point, 
and perpetuating the grievous wrong of which we 
were guilty in the Opium War. If we, persist in our 
present system, we are not only supporting our 
Indian Empire by the proceeds of a dishonourable 
traffic, but we are maintaining that traffic in plain 
violation of the rights of nations. 

Supposing that the Chinese Government should 
enter upon a new crusade against opium, having the 
hearty support, instead of the armed opposition of 
the British Government, their struggle might have a 
very different issue from the former one. If England 
engaged to do what she could to repress smuggling 
on the part of her own subjects, the other Treaty 
powers, the United States, France, and Germany 
would doubtless do the same. Everything leads to the 
belief that if the Chinese Government were assured 



PEOPOSITIONS FOB AN AMENDED OPIUM POLICY. 215 

of the co-operation of the Treaty powers, it would 
make a splendid attempt to eradicate the poppy and 
extinguish opium-smoking from the Great Wall to the 
Southern ocean, from the Pacific to the mountains of 
Thibet. Having the moral support of its own people, 
it might succeed. On the other hand, through the 
venality of its own officials it might fail. The 
result would not be our responsibility, and no 
prognostication of the result can aflTect our duty. , 

Let us review the practical conclusions to which 
we have arrived. 

(1.) In any scheme for reform of our relations 
with opium, the first requisite is a readiness to 
relinquish, in whole or in part, as may be necessary, 
the revenue derived from the drug, and a deter- 
mination to treat it henceforth on considerations 
independent of, even hostile to, the raising of 
revenue from this source. At this point we part 
company with our numerous well-wishers who 
deplore the history of British connexion with opium, 
who acknowledge that our present position is 
indefensible on moral grounds, and assure us that if 
we will only point out some other mode of raising 
the revenue which shall not inconvenience anybody, 
they will support us with all their might. There is 
many a man getting his living by dishonest courses, 
who would gladly abandon them at once, in exchange 
for an eqtial income from an unexceptionable source, 
if only he could make the exchange without risk or 
inconvenience. But repentance is not to be had on 



216 BRITISH OPIUM POLICY. 

such cheap terms. Our argument against the 
opium revenue is that as hitherto and now collected 
and defended, it is morally wrong j and on this ground 
we urge its relinquishment. To those who admit the 
validity of the argument, the conclusion is imperative. 

(2.) Having formed this righteous resolution, we 
might easily jump to the conclusion that the only 
consistent course is to suppress the cultivation and 
exportation altogether. In favour of this course 
powerful arguments may be alleged, but we can 
not but admit a certain measure of doubtfulness 
attending them. In the present condition of public 
sentiment it appears extremely improbable that such 
a course will commend itself to the judgment of the 
nation. Another generation which has solved our 
difficulties in connexion with alcohol, may be relieved 
from our hesitation in respect to opium; but wo 
cannot wait for another generation to abandon the 
unrighteous treatment of China which our fathers 
commenced and we are continuing. 

(3.) Therefore we urge on India an instant return 
to the principle of employing taxation as a bond^fde 
method of repression. In order to carry out this 
change of policy, we urge the abandonment of the 
monopoly, not only to relieve the Government from 
the appearance of having a direct interest in the pro- 
motion of vice, but because in the present system the 
Government has, in reality, a direct interest in the 
promotion of vice, and because we have seen that 
the moral instincts of Government have not been 
proof against the temptation involved in this. 



PROPOSITIONS FOB AN AMENDED OPIUM POLICY. 217 

(4.) Such a change, however, would by itself be 
little more than formal, because the bulk of our 
revenue comes from China. Our great demand is 
justice for China. We urge that we must cease 
altogether from coercion of the Chinese. We must 
leave them free to prohibit the entrance of our opium 
altogether, or to tax it as high as they think fit, even 
prohibitively. This alteration of behaviour towards 
China could not be effected without acknowledg- 
ment on our part of error in the past, and we should 
not shrink from full and candid confession of our 
fault. On the other hand, such acknowledgment 
would afford a fair opportunity for pointing out the 
share which the misconduct of China has had in 
bringing about the evils of the past ; and our change 
of policy at so great a cost would enable us to 
urge upon China the importance of repressing the 
growth of opium within her own borders. In this 
way the progress of the vice of opium-smoking 
would be at once arrested, and we have good reason 
to hope that the Chinese Government could and 
would reduce it to a minimum. At all events, wo 
should have done all that as a political power we 
can do to retrace our steps, and make amends for 
the past. 

(5.) As such an altered policy could not bo 
carried out without great diminution, or total Iohh, 
of the opium revenue, and as the inhabitants of 
India are not responsible for the growth of 
this revenue, it appears that justice rcqiiireH 
the English nation lo giianl tlip infcn^lH of flu' 



218 BBITISH OPIUM POLICY. 

Indian Empire in effecting this reform. As a rule, 
India is bound to pay her own charges ; but in this 
case, the fault lying at our door, we are under obli- 
gation to take care that our repentance does no 
injury to the innocent. 

Such are the conclusions we arrive at. If we 
lack the courage of our convictions; what then? 
Possibly the opium revenue may slip away from us, 
and fail us when we are in a worse position than we 
are now. Possibly we may be forced again to fight 
for it, and rebaptize our drug profits in Chinese 
blood. In one way or another the inevitable Ne- 
mesis will come. But it is our desire to accomplish 
the aim of this essay by begetting convictions of 
duty, not by appealing to motives of expediency. 
If the British public resists the appeal to its sense 
of right, it will hardly be moved by attempts to 
frighten it. 



APPENDIX A. 



TESTIMONIES AS TO THE EFFECTS OF OPIUM- 
EATING AND OPIUM-SMOKING. 

I. 

William Lockhabt^ P.R.C.S., F.R.6.S., of the London 
Missionary Society. In the " Medical Missionary in China/' 
chap, xiv : — 

" When a smoker first commences the nse of opiam it is a 
pleasant and refreshing stimnlant, an artificial vigour and 
tone are given to the system, followed by a corresponding 
relaxation and listlessness ; after which an efibrt is made to 
remove the latter by a return to the pipe. This stage in the 
smoker's progress may be prolonged for some years without 
the health being interfered with; but he soon becomes a 
victim to the habit thus formed, which cannot easily be 
shaken off; the strength, however, is not impaired, and 
attention can be paid to business as usual ; indeed, the 
stimulus of the drug enables him to enter with vivacity upon 
any pursuit in which he may be engaged. At this time a 
little decision would enable him to throw off the habit, but 
this is seldom called for, and the smoker continues to use 
his pipe, thus accustoming himself more and more to depen* 
dence on his much-loved indulgence. By and by retribution 
comes; he cannot live comfortably without the stimulant; 
all the pleasure has gone, but he must obtain relief from the 
pain of body and dissipation of mind which follow the absence 
of the drug at any cost, the quantity of the drug called for 
being from time to time greater, and its use more frequent. 

''Among the symptoms which present themselves are 



220 APPENDIX. 

gripiDg pains in the bowels^ pain in the limbs, loss of appe- 
tite, so that the smoker can only eat dainty food ; disturbed 
sleep and general emaciation. The outward appearances are 
sallowness of the complexion, bloodless cheeks and lips, 
sunken eye, with a dark circle round the eyelids, and alto- 
gether a haggard countenance. ... In fine, a confirmed 
opium-smoker presents a most melancholy appearance; 
haggard, dejected, with a lack-lustre eye, and a slovenly 
weakly^ and feeble gait.'' 

4e 4: :|e :|e :|e 4: 4: 

" There is, perhaps, no form of intemperance more seducing 
than the use of opium, nor is there any more difficult to be 
delivered from. To acquire a full acquaintance with the 
effects of the agent, the consequences of which are now 
being discussed, it is necessary to view it under two forms : 
1st, As to its incipient effects in the stage of exhilaration, 
while the individual is in good health, and the powers of life 
are in fuU vigour; at this time the drug is a means of enjoy, 
ment. 2ndly, As to the effects produced by the drug when it 
is employed as a means of relief from the distress and pain 
resulting from the long-continued use of such 4a stimulant. 
This may be called the stage of depression; in this condition 
the individual soon becomes a martyr to his former vices, 
and bitterly repents of his having submitted to the temp- 
tation. 

'^ When the pipe is first taken, during the incipient stage, 
a few grains are sufficient to produce the full effect. This 
small quantity requires to be giuduaUy increased to produce 
a given result; the times of using it must become more 
frequent, until the victim is soon compelled to use one 
drachm, or sixty grains, in the course of twenty-four hours. 
This quantity per day will supply the smoker for some years, 
but it has at last to be augmented till two, three, fom-, or even 
five drachms are daily consumed. This may be denominated 
the second stage. 

'' Some are said to use ten drachms daily, but these are only 
the superior classes, who have no need to attend to any 



THE EFFECTS OF OPIUM. 221 

basiness or occupation^ and can spend almost their whole 
time in intoxicating themselves with the use of the drug, or 
in recovering from its effects. The life of snch persons is 
not prolonged^ and the many complaints arising from the 
excessive indulgence soon put an end to their useless 
existence. 

" Besides the cases of death arising from the excessive use 
of opium among the higher classes^ who can afford to gorge 
themselves with their stimulant till they die^ there are 
many more unhappy dissolutions arising from the inability 
to procure the accustomed and to them necessary quantity. 
In the case of those who are in middling circumstances^ and 
are inured to the habit, the enervating effects are such that 
they become after a time unable to attend to their ordinary 
avocations. They then lose their situations, or their business 
fails, and they are reduced to necessity. Gradually they 
part with their little property, furniture, clothes, &c,, until 
they come to the level of the labouring poor, without those 
energetic habits which might otherwise form the ground of 
support. Having no property, furniture, or clothes to 
dispose of, their wives and children are sold to supply their 
ever-increasing appetite for the drug, and when these are 
gone, with greatly diminished strength for labour, they can 
no longer earn sufficient for their own wants, and are obliged 
to beg for their daily bread. As to the supply of opium, 
they must depend on the scrapings of other men's pipes j 
and as soon as they are unable to obtain by begging the 
necessaries of life, together with the half -burnt opium on 
which their very life depends, they droop and die by the 
road-side, and are buried at the expense of the charitable. 

" The writer once knew two respectable young men, the 
sons of an officer of high rank, who died in this part of the 
country. They were both well-informed men, had received 
a good education, were evidently accustomed to good society, 
and excited considerable interest in the minds of those with 
whom they came in contact. But they were opium-smokers; 
BO inveterate was the habit, and so large the quantity 



222 APPENDIX. 

necessary to keep up the stimulant^ that their available 
funds were exhausted duriLg their stay in this city. Friends 
assisted them to some extent, and relieved their necessities 
again and again ; but it was impossible to give them bread 
and opium too, and they subsequently died one after another, 
in the most abject and destitute condition. 

''Whilst these notes were preparing, the writer had 
occasion to go into the city, and just inside the north gate, 
in front of a temple, he saw one of such destitute persons, 
unable to procure either food or the drug, lying at the last 
gasp ; there were two or three others with drooping heads 
sitting near, who looked as if they would soon be prostrated 
too. The next day the writer passed and found the first of 
the group dead and stiff, with a coarse mat wound round 
his body for a shroud. The rest were now lying down, 
unable to rise. The third day another was dead, and the 
remainder almost near it. Help was vain, and pity for their 
wretched condition the only feeling that could be indulged. 

a|e 4s 4s a|e 3|e a|c 3|c 

'' As to the moral evils arising from indulgence in opium, 
they are very patent. It blunts the moral sense, causes good 
men to waver in virtue, and makes bad men worse. Even 
Coleridge, with all his fine sensibilities and acquaintance 
with i*eligious truth, was tempted to prevaricate and deceive 
in order to conceal his indulgence in the habit, and elude the 
vigilance of those who were engaged in watching him. How 
much more, then, may we expect a lying nation like the 
Chinese to lie so much the more in their attempts to conceal 
their vices from the eyes of observers. So invariably is it 
the practice of Chinese opium-smokers to deny their having 
any connexion with the drug, that it is never advisable to 
ask them any questions about it, lest one should induce 
them to tell unnecessary untruths. No confidence can be 
placed in the religious profession of an opium-smoker, unless 
he abandon the vice, and even then the missionary should 
have very good evidence of his having done so before admit- 
ting him into connexion with the Church. « Not only is the 



THE EFFECTS OF OnUM. 223 

moral sense weakened in opinm-smokers^ bat the habits thej 
have acquired natnrally and necessarily lead them into asso- 
ciations where they ai'e directly tempted to the most proili* 
gate yices. A man accnstomed to the use of the drug^ 
therefore^ soon becomes worse in other respects^ and haying 
commenced the downward career, every step in the I'ake's 
progress is more and more deteriorating. Opinm-smoking 
is thas the parent of numeroas evils which are not originally 
chargeable upon it. When unable to procure the drug by 
honest means^ such is the craving for it among its slaves, that 
fraud, peculation, and theft are resorted to in order to obtain 
it ; insomuch that the Chinese themselves are in the habit of 
withdrawing their confidence from those addicted to the vile 
habit, unless they have other methods of tying them down to 
honesty. 

:|e :|i a|e 4c a|e 4c 4s 

" The writer cannot close without a few words of exhorta- 
tion to those who deal in the drug in China. The principals 
are professing Christians, and justly pride themselves on 
being humane men. But Christianity and humanity both 
inculcate principles which, if carried out, would lead them to 
refrain from the traffic. Both of these would teach them 
that they are not to benefit themselves to the injury of 
others. Granting that a large quantity of the opium they 
sell is used only as a ' harmless luxury,' and that in those 
cases where harm ensues it is the abuse, and not the use, of 
the article which causes it ; granting all this, they must admit 
that the use leads to the abuse, by a natural and necessary 
process, and that if they did not import the drug, neither the 
use nor abuse of it could possibly take place. We do 
not say that all the opium imported does harm, but much of 
it assuredly does so ; and if every chest but killed its man, 
or shortened the life and happiness of a single individual, it 
cannot be denied that it does harm. And can any sit down 
contented with the thought that the gains they are acquiring 
are obtained at the expense of the diminished comfort or 
shortened existence of others ; while the wives and children 



224 APPENDIX. 

of the deluded victims are bitterly bewailing the hour when 
the head of the family ever came in contact with opium ? 
Surely^ if all the results of the traffic were known^ humanity 
would lead them to recoil from any participation in it/' 

Note. 

The essayist wrote to Dr. Lockhart for farther explanation 
of his opinion as to the possible moderate use of the drug, 
and received the following reply^ under date 27th January^ 
1874:— 

'' Opium is used as spirituous liquors are used, as a stimu- 
lant, and I have known many respectable Chinese who have 
used the drug for many years without apparent injury to 
their health ; but the fascinating effect of opium seduces the 
larger number of smokers to use more and more of the drug, 
which then tells powerfully and injuriously upon health ; and 
being once become slaves to this large need of the drug (one 
to two drachms, that is, one-eighth to one-quarter of an 
ounce), they cannot leave it off without great pain and 
dysentery, but go on to a still increased quantity, and thus 
they are dragged down to misery/' 

II. 

J. Dudgeon, M.D., CM., London Missionary Society, in 
the third Annual Beport of the Peking Hospital, under his 
care, page 12 : — 

'^ The opium patients are readily recognized by their emacia- 
tion, debility, sallow complexion, livid lips, and langour of the 
eye. The opium-smoking will, however, bear a favourable 
comparison with the drinking customs at home. It does not 
produce the intoxication of ardent spirits. The opium- 
smoker is not such a nuisance to the community and his 
family. Both are evils ending in loss of health, wealth, 
physical and mental powers, influence, and shortening of life. 
It leads to beggary, and is the cause of much crime. Thefts 
and robberies are committed to procure the drug or pay the 
opium bill.'' 



THE EFFECTS OF OPIUM, 225 

This third report was the first issued by Dr. Dadgeoiij the 
hospital haying been for two years under Dr. Lockhart's 
care. In the fifth Report of the Hospital (1866), Dr. 
Dudgeon speaks thus of opium-smoking : — 

^' It is a powerful habit, a second nature, stronger and 
more insinuating than strong drink. I have had numerous 
professions of cure, but I have learned to receive such with 
great caution, and the more so the longer the period in which 
the drug has been used. To give up the fascinations and 
associations of the pipe, and to overcome and hold out against 
the agonies, pains, discomforts, even with the aid of foreign 
medicine, which are induced by attempts at reformation, 
require great strength of will. After abstinence for months, 
perhaps, the victims relapse into their old habits. Daring 
the last three years I have had four different applications 
from the same person for medicine to effect a cure.'' 

Dr. Dudgeon being now (February, 1876) in Scotland has 
kindly written for me the foUlowing statement of his opinion 
as to the effects of opium-smoking. After some remarks as 
to the probable number of smokers, which will be found in 
Appendix B., the Dr. says: — 

'^ Opium-smoking gives no immunity from disease, except, 
perhaps, in the case of shock or severe operations. The 
Chinese, smokers or non-smokers, are not subject to acute 
or inflammatory diseases, and the characteristics which we 
observe in many cases, and after surgical interference, are 
common to all classes, and are doubtless owing to their 
abstemious habits, and their well-known constitutional 
peculiarities. I must here enter my strong dissent, however, 
against the important but incorrect and misleading evidence 
laid before the Committee on Indian Finance (1871) in regard 
to the effect of opium on malaria, this being assigned by two of 
the most influential witnesses as the cause of the prevalence 
of the vice in China. Many of their diseases are rather aggra- 
vated by being addicted to the habit, and others in their 
initial stage, such as the various chest or pulmonary affec- 
tions in the cold north, are benefited by the use, and life, if 



226 APPENDIX. 

not in many cases lengthened^ is at least made more comfort- 
able and endurable. A large percentage of those who 
acquire the habit^ do so, it is said^ from the absence of skilled 
medical men for the cure of disease or the alleviation of 
suffering. It is curious that, although their disease does 
not go on improving as it did during the first two or three 
weeks of treatment, nor show the slightest signs of giving 
way in eighteen or twenty years, but is rather aggravated, and 
has superinduced upon it a more serious disease, no Chinese 
patient ever dreams of throwing his doctor (Dr. Poppy) 
overboard. The treatment of such cases is rendered much 
more difficult — our remedies which contain preparations of 
opium, and depend upon this drug for their chief remedial or 
palliative action, being quite inert. Some of the above 
patients came for diarrhoea, dysentery, spermatorrhoea, im- 
potence, want of posterity, and such-like complaints, but the 
great bulk are for ordinary diseases, not depending upon the 
opium as a producing cause. You know I established a shop 
in the neighbourhood of the hospital for the sale of anti- 
opium pills, and thither the distinctly opium patienta go, 
who come to be cured or relieved, or tided over difficulties. 
By confirmed I mean long-continued cases, in which the 
habit, appetite, or desire is so established that it has become, 
as it were, a very part of his constitution^ and without which, 
or some equivalent, he could not exist. This looks as if it 
were impossible to give up the habit when once acquired. 
And generally speaking it is so. A very large number of 
criminals die annually in the prisons of China from depriva- 
tion of the drug. They are generally cut off by diarrhcea 
and dysentery. These deadly affections^ — for they prove quite 
intractable in the case of the opium-smoker j the Chinese 
designate these diseases in such cases by the appellation 
yen, or opium diarrhoea and dysentery — sometimes also attack 
the confirmed smoker, and then his case is hopeless. Opium, 
which is ordinarily a powerful remedy in these cases, seems to 
be quite inert. I have known a goodly number, however, who 
have given up the pipe : some had recourse to stimulants, and 



T_£ ♦•*£ T> J --. *. iiir 



at each meal .nrire ijkZr ittr::»:i :f a LziLt slil:s1.«: : 
others made decocn?^s z£ Ciizisse i.-zir isrb?, az.£ iiflif-i 
certain qoaatiries c{ crsie r7::i:=2 -""lirr -w-err r-Llr^i-e*! xc- 
last a certain tfrse, and in exf^ 5::::*=e:;-r-i ieritr'n^iz: z^ 
preparation of ihe preacrhrtii-n. iiLrr>iar;LL^ SThti::^!^ ]fss 
and lessopiom until iIk-j g^i c-::r\:«i ; — s-.Tae, :c "■'Lizr *i:«:-:Li a 
dozen have been me=i':>ers i-f : or cirsrri as Frkhir. rsT-e ni> 
the habit by mean^ cf mMirfnss fbr3i^l:-e»i rj s>e, bfcn^ a 
combination of stizsolant^, seiiirres, ani t:ris- Tnese 
cases hare extended frc^m cne or !"■-* jears To tw^Te ^-^^ 
and fomrteen jeais. Spirits were nx taken in tneir c&ses as 
a ftiui pro q\io, akhoogh cf ccnrse occa£:?n&IlT ininZ^rf in 
at meals^ as is Terr common in X. China. And I nare mn 
with three or foor cases in mr expenenoe, where the pataent«, 
by strength of will, or through intimi'Jaticn from pirents, 
masters, or superior officers, hare giTen up the habit without 
any help whaterer. I hare been much struck with these 
cases, the poor smokers having suffered considerably by the 
great effort. I cannot recommend such a course. Ther 
complained of dyspepsiay derangement of the bowels, want 
of energy, but chiefly, and this is always present, and is what 
the smoker feds when the habit is not gratified at the proper 
period, paui all through his bones. 

'^ Speaking generally, then, it may be asserted that it is 
next to impossible to give up the habit when once thoroughly 
established . The next question is, when is this habit formed ; 
or in other words, how long can a man smoke before the 
habit becomes confirmed; or in other words, are there any 
^moderate' smokers? The man that smokes five candareens 
or even one mace, will consider himself a ' moderate ' smoker 
in comparison with other smokers who consume four or five 
mace, or one tael daily. I have been told by well-to-do 
patients that their yin, or habit, was not great, for they only 
smoked five or six mace, or eight mace, or one tael two mace, 
or in some cases more daily. I have oflen said in such 
cases that I would consider one candareen a large dose, at 
which they were always much astonished. If by moderate wo 

Q 2 



228 APPENDIX. 

mean that a man cau take a small dose^ or what he considers 
a moderate quantity, and adhere to that without further 
increase, then my conviction from twelve years' experience 
is that this is indeed rare. I have known cases — the parties 
asserted it at least — where a similar quantity has been in- 
dulged in for years, without increase or diminution: the 
quantity has been invariably increased from the time when 
the smoker began, or when the habit got confirmed; to 
obtain the same effect the dose must be from time to time 
slightly increased. Time, money, and other circumstances 
and conditions frequently modify it. I have seen vast 
numbers of cases in which the quantity has been diminished 
by a third or even a half. These cases have always been 
confirmed smokers, and the reasons assigned have been want 
of money chiefly, although a few have admitted self-interest, 
or the preservation of their health. Those in the lower 
and poorer ranks have taken to eating the ashes ; and those 
in the middle class of smokers, with whom money is not 
plentiful, half smoke and half eat the ashes. This, however, 
is only an apparent diminution, for, as may readily be 
imagined, a small and cheaper dose by the stomach will 
produce the same effects as a larger dose by the lungs. I 
ought to say that the eating is manifold more injurious than 
smoking. 

''With these explanations, is there then in our sense any- 
thing in China to correspond to our moderate drinking — 
taking a little daily, and for years, without any effect upon his 
constitution or life, nay, in some cases improving the one 
and lengthening the other — letting it alone if desired without 
feeling any the worse for it, and without any craving, 
periodical or otherwise, for the beverage. In this sense I very 
much doubt the existence of moderate opium-smoking. 
Until the habit is formed, which may embrace a period of 
from two to four months, the smoker may not find that 
periodical imperious craving which demands satisfaction ; but 
sooner or later he finds himself the slave to the appetite, and 
then, whatever be the quantity, this man in this sense ceases 



THE KFFEOTS OF OPIUM. 229 

to be a moderate smoker. He mast^ sooner or later, increase 
his doBOi and, sooner or later, the drug will breed its nsnal 
train of symptoms, physical, moral, social, intellectual, and 
commercial. I have met a few cases in which it was asserted 
that opium was only now and again had recourse to on the 
occasion of a feast, &c., but if the man has the means, and 
his work or service does not preclude him indulg^ing, he will 
take to the pipe regularly, and soon feel that he cannot do 
without it. If, however, there were much moral and religious 
principle and a strong will, I believe it is possible to take a 
small dose of opium every two or three days over a long 
course of years without any appreciable habit being formed 
or injury to the system being sustained. After my experi- 
ence I am inclined to think that the physical evils have been 
to some extent overrated, and that a very considerable dose, 
say one, two, or even three mace regularly taken by a man 
in good circumstances and with good living, will not 
materially or to any great extent shorten life; nay, for a 
short time, while the habit is forming, or once formed, 
requiring increase, but before it has had time to destroy the 
appetite for food, turning night into day, and causing various 
functional derangements of the brain, stomach, bowels, Jbc., 
the smoker may experience some benefit, just as a glass of 
wine or beer before or at dinner, to the delicate constitution, 
may give strength and appetite and power to digest, and 
enable the patient to take what before never could be 
taken, a hearty meal. It is not uncommon to hear smokers 
assert that their indulgence in the vice has extended 
over twenty, thirty, and even forty years. In this respect 
it is therefore not unlike spirits and tobacco. In practice, 
however, speaking generally, we do not find ''moderate'' 
opium-smoking, without its concomitant results of increase 
and injury. Some may say they could leave it alone, 
but in practice they do not. Some, doubtless, assert this, 
not wishing to acknowledge their slavery or their weak- 
ness. When it is understood that a man's moral 
character goes, that he loses his place, is suspected by all - 



230 APJ»END1X. 

that no one can trust him — not only is the Chinese view of it 
evident, bat there is here a reason for not acknowledging its 
power. It is unlike spirits in most particulars. In the 
latter, the injury is, as it were, the exception ; whereas in the 
former it is the rule. The reader will be able to form his 
own idea of the moderate opium-smoker from these desultory 
remarks.^' 



III. 



W. H. Medhurst, H.B.M. Consul, Shanghai, in " The 
Foreigner in Par Cathay :" — 

" The effect upon the individual, when indulged in habitu- 
ally and to excess, is certainly debasing, and there is, 
perhaps, no vicious habit from which complete recovery is 
more difficult. At the same time I would caution the reader 
against an unqualified acceptance of the tales of horror one 
hears and reads of in connexion with opium-smoking in 
China. How that, for instance, every fifth, or tenth, or 
twentieth, or even fortieth man in the empire is a victim to 
the habit; how that the opium hells are as abundant as the 
provision shops, and crowded day and night with hundreds 
of infatuated wretches hurrying to their ruin; how that 
skeletons haunt the streets, and whole families, beggared by 
drugged husbands and fathers, may be seen dying in the 
highways and fields, and so on. There are opium-dens, no 
doubt, and quite numerous enough to sadden the philan- 
thropic observer, and the victims which the drug drags to 
misery and death are also, alas I beyond all counting. But 
what is the vice, and where is the country of which the same 
may not be said with equal or approximate truth 7 Indeed, 
were I asked to state candidly in which part of the world I 
thought the effects of vicious indulgence are more outwardly 
observable, socially speaking, I certainly should not name 
China. Statistics on the subject cannot be relied on. It is 
known to a chest how much Indian drug is imported into 
the country, but there is no means of estimating the quantity 



THK EFFECTS OF OPIUM. 231 

of native-grown opiam produced^ and I do not believe that 
there is any person sufficiently informed on the subject to 
be able to state with any approach to accnracy, what pro- 
portion the smokers of the drug bear to the general popula- 
tion. The most that can be asserted with truth is that the 
vice is a general one^ more especially in districts near the 
sea-coast and great commercial centres, that a considerable 
proportion of its victims indulge to an excess ruinous to 
health and prospects, and that it has been gaining gpround 
upon the people with rapid strides during the last few 
years.'' 

IV. 

Evidence of Mr. T. T. Cooper (the traveller,, author of 
" The Pioneer of Commerce/' Ac.), before Select Committee 
of the House of Commons, 1871 : — 

*' 5522. Bo you think from your own experience in travelling 
over China, and investigating these matters, that the use of 
opium there causes as much public injury as the consumption 
of drink in England, as far as you can see ? — ^Yes. I think 
that the effects of opium-smoking in China are worse than 
the effects of drink in England, as far as my experience 
goes. 

" 552«3. But it does not cause the amount of crime that we 
suffer from in this country as the effect of drink ? — No. A 
man when he commences to smoke lies down on his bed, 
and does not get up till it is finished. It is very costly and 
very dangerous in this way : that if a man has been in the 
habit of smoking opium, and ho has not money to supply 
himself with opium, his constitution then receives such a 
frightful shock that it shows very quickly ; but as long as 
he takes his regular quantity of opium every day he does 
not feel anything ; he must have it, but it does not destroy 
his health, because he eats and he works ; but if he loses 
his supply of opium on Monday morning, on Tuesday morn- 
ing he will be ruined for work all the rest of the weekj he 



232 APPENDIX. 

will not pick up again, the Bystem schema to fait so for want 
of opium. 

'' 5524. And probably a man accostomed to it all his life 
would die ? — They do die in China from that cause. In the 
more populous parts which I have gone through, generally 
after starting on my journey early in the morning, through 
the suburbs of the towns, before the watch have had time 
to go round, it is a very common thing to see half-naked 
men lying dead simply from want of opium. 

'' 5525. I understand you that you think the evils which 
arise from the consumption of opium arise from the poverty 
that it causes, and not from any crime — ^that it does not lead 
to crime f — It leads to crime in this way, that men will do 
anything, they will sell their children, their wives, their 
mothers, and their fathers, to get opium.'' 

NoTiB. — Mr. Cooper's evidence is throughout interesting 
and important. See further quotations in Appendix B., 
especially as to '' moderate " smoking. 



V. 

Assistant-Surgeonlmpey, Government Ezaminerof Opium, 
in " Malwa Opium," published in Bombay, 1848 : — 

*' Donbtless excessive indulgence in any propensity seldom 
fails to produce all the worst results which can ensue 
from a bad pursuit, and opium is not wanting in the most 
pernicious consequences or the most attached votaries. 
But it is hardly fair to condemn a practice from its evils. 
.... The baneful effects of intemperance are unfortu- 
nately but too well known, and few afflictions are exceeded 
by delirium tremens in horror and severity, while no vice 
is so ruinous to the constitution, mind, and morals, as 
addiction to drink .... still we would not stigmatize 
every one who indulges in these luxuries as drunkards. 
.... Opium has no doubt votaries among the voluptuous 
and the poor, though its price keeps it in some degree above 
the reach of the latter, vet upon them it produces its most 



THK EFFECTS OF OPIUM. 238 

calamitous effects ; but, as with liqaor, it would be rather 
too much to assert that every opiom-smoker was irretrievably 
mined in body and sonl. The consumption of the quantity 
given up to the Chinese in 1839, viz. 20,283 chests, would 
amply and liberally satisfy thirty millions of smokers for 
twelve months, and surely the majority of these must use it 
in moderation, and more as a luxury than a vice. . • . 

" The analogy which has been endeavoured to be drawn 
between opium and spirits, though true and just in most 
respects, is questionable, perhaps, in one important feature 
— ^the greater aptitude of the former to turn into an invete- 
rate habit, which it is to be presumed proceeds from its very 
seductive and pleasurable influence more than its stimulating 
property. .... Regarding the inveteracy of the habit, 
it is unfortunately but too true that, once formed, correction 
is next to an impossibility, and the commencement of the 
j>raciice may be said to be synchronous with youth. Opium- 
smoking is not now, however, a mere luxury, but an essential 
to the very existence of the Chinese people, in whatever 
rank of life— from the humblest mechanic to the highest 
functionary and greatest dignitary ; it forms the chief part, 
not only of their enjoyment, but their daily necessities. 
.... Yet, notwithstanding this repeated application to the 
pipe, and the apparent excess denoted thereby, it is in 
reality comparatively innocuous, and its effects cannot but be 
regarded as very ethereal, and its consequences much less 
injurious than are imagined. No sort of difference can be 
recognized, either in the personal appearance, gait, or 
manner of the professional testers in Bombay, — men who 
earn their livelihood by constant and repeated doses of it, as 
it were.'* 



VT. 

Dr. Eatwell, First Assistant and Opium Examiner in the 
Bengal Monopoly Service : — 

'' Having passed three years in China, I may be allowed 



V 



234 APPENDIX. 

to' state the results of my observation^ and I can affirm thus 
far^ that the effects of the abuse of the drug do not come 
very frequently under observation^ and that when cases do 
occur^ the habit is frequently found to have been induced by 
the presence of some painful chronic disease, to escape from 
the Bufferings of which the patient has fled to' this resource. 
That this is not always the cause, however, I am perfectly 
ready to admit, and there are doubtless many who indulge 
in the habit to a pernicious extent, led by the same morbid 
impulses which induce men to become drunkards in even the 
most civilized countries, but these cases do not, at all events, 
come before the public eye. It requires no laborious search 
in civilized England to discover evidences of the pernicious 
effects of the abuse of alcoholic liquors; our open and 
thronged gin palaces, and our streets afford abundant 
testimony on the subject, but in China this open evidence of 
the evil effects of opium is at least wanting. As regards 
the effects of the habitual use of the drug on the 7nas8 of the 
people, I must affirm that no injurious results are visible. 
The people generally are a muscular and well-formed race, 
the labouring portion being capable of great and prolonged 
exertion under a fierce sun, in an unhealthy climate. Their 
disposition is cheerful and peaceable, and quarrels and brawls 
are rarely heard amongst even the lower ordera ; whilst in 
general intelligence they rank deservedly high amongst 
orientals. 

''I will, therefore, conclude with observing that the proofs 
are still wanting to show that the moderate use of opium 
produces more pernicious effects upon the constitution than 
does the moderate use of spirituous liquors ; whilst at the 
same time it is certain that the consequences of the abuse of 
the former are less appalling in their effect upon the victim, 
and less disastrous to society at large, than are the conse- 
quences of the abuse of the latter. 

" Board of GnstomB, Salt, and Opiam, 
'* lit November, 1850." 



THl EFFECTS OF OPIUM. 235 



VII. 



Pareira. Materia Medica : — 

''Opiam-smoking. — In the first edition of this work I stated 
that although the immoderate practice of opiam-smoking 
mast be highly detrimental to healthy yet that I believed 
the statements of Medhnrst and others applied to cases in 
which this practice was carried to excess; and I observed 
that an account of the effects of opium-smoking by an 
unbiassed and professional witness was a desideratum. My 
opinion was founded on the statements of Botto and Marsden. 
The latter, a most accurate writer, observes that 'the Limun 
and Baiang Asset gold-traders, who are an active and 
laborious class of men, but yet indulge as freely in opium as 
any others whatever, are, notwithstanding, the most healthy 
and vigorous people to be met with on the island/ This 
desideratum has been supplied by Mr. Smith, surgeon, of 
Pulo Penang, whose statements fully confirm my opinion. 
For although the practice is most destructive to those who 
live in poverty and distress, and who carry it to excess, yet 
it does not appear that the Chinese in easy circumstances, 
and who have the comforts of life about them, are materially 
affected in respect to longevity, by the private addiction to 
this vice. ' There are many persons,' observes Mr. Smith, 
' within my own observation who have attained the age of 
sixty, seventy, or more, and who are well known as habitual 
opium-smokers for more than thirty years past.' The first 
effect of this drug on the Chinese smokers is to render them 
more loquacious and animated. Gradually the conversation 
drops, laughter is occasionally produced by the most trifling 
causes, and to these effects succeed vacancy of countenance, 
pallor, shrinking of the features, so that the smokers resemble 
people convalescing fi-om fever, followed by deep sleep for 
half an hour to three or four hours. An inordinate quantity 
causes head-ache, vertigo, and nausea. The Malays are 
rendered outrageous and quarrelsome by the opium-pipe. 
It is extremely diflBcult to discontinue the vice of opium- 



€( 



2^\i) APPENDIX. 

smoking; yet there are many instances of its being done. 
The continuance of this destructive practice deteriorates the 
physical constitution and moral character of the individual, 
especially among the lower classas. Its powerful effects on 
the system are manifested by stupor, forgetfulness, deterio* 
ration of the mental faculties, emaciation, debility, sallow 
complexion, lividity of lips and eyelids, languor and lack- 
lustre of the eye, appetite either destroyed or depraved, 
sweetmeats or sugar-cane being the articles that are most 
relished. 'In the morning these creatures have a most 
wretched appearance, evincing no symptoms of being 
refreshed or invigorated by sleep, however profound. There 
is a remarkable dryness or burning in the throat, which 
urges them to repeat the opium-smoking. If the dose be 
not taken at the usual time, there is great prostration, vertigo, 
torpor, discharge of water from the eyes, and in some an 
involuntary discharge of semen, even when wide awake. If 
the privation be complete, a still more formidable train of 
phenomena takes place. Coldness is felt over the whole 
body, with aching pains in all parts. Diarrhoea occurs ; the 
most horrid feelings of wretchedness come on ; and if the 
poison be withheld, death terminates the victim's existence.' 
The ofispring of opium-smokers are weak, stunted, and 
decrepid.*' 



VIII. 

Evidence of Sir B. N. G. Hamilton, Agent in Central 
India, before Special Committee, 1871 : — 

'' 4986. It (opium) is not used by the population (of Mal- 
wa) ? — A very small quantity is consumed in the country. 

4987. Then opium consumers are rare there ? — ^Yes. 

4988. Does it affect their health injuriously? — Certainly, 
''4989. Whether it is either eaten or smoked, it generally 

produces very serious effects on the health 7 — Certainly : 
opium-eaters are very soon unfit for any active pursuits. 
" 4990. And it shortens their lives ?— Yes.'' 



€€ 



THE EFFKCTS OF OPIUM. 237 

IX. 

Sir Benjamin C. Brodie : — 

'* However valaable opium may be when employed as an 
article of medicine^ it is impossible for any one who is 
acquainted with the subject to doubt that the habitual use of 
it is productive of the most pernipious consequences^ destroy- 
ing the healthy action of the digestive organs, weakening 
the powers of the mind as well as the body, and rendering 
the individual who indulges himself in it a worse than useless 
member of society* I cannot but regard those who promote 
the use of opium as an article of luxury as inflicting a most 
serious injury on the human race.^^ 

(Quoted in Nonconformist , 14th Dec., 1870.) 



X. 

Dr. J. Carnegie, formerly of Amoy: — 

<* Chesterfield, April 12th, 1874. 

'' My views, I fear, would, in the eyes of Quakers, appear 
heterodox. I have no hesitation in pronouncing opium a 
great curse to the Chinese, as alcohol is to the English ; but 
I am not prepared to say that the moderate use of the drug 
is either impossible or injurious, any more than the analogous 
beverage in our own country. I have seen it used in 
moderation with no apparent injury to mind, body, or estate, 
and I have seen it used in excess to the utter ruin of all 
three. Undoubtedly, the latter mode of using the drug 
vastly preponderates." 

XI. 

De Quincey's "Confessions of an English Opium-eater:'' — 

[It being impossible to give a fair account of this author's 

teaching about the effects of opium by a few brief quotations, 

we have thrown our impressions in the form of a critique.] 

This work is but of slight, if any, value in a scientific 



2*J8 APPENDIX. 

point of view. The object of the brilliant liiteraieur is 
evideotly, first of all, artistic, as he himself avows. He 
meant to write, and has written, an intensely interesting 
composition which should live among the classics of our 
language. Second, or co-equal with that, was his desire to 
present his own conduct in as favourable a light as possible. 
Whatever the public judgment shall be upon the practice of 
opium -eating, he is determined that the public shall not visit 
with severe moral censure Thomas De Quincey, the opium- 
eater. Apart from these drawbacks, his work helps us but 
little in forming a judgment, because it is careless in giving 
dates, amounts, and collateral information. He tells us very 
little about the effects of opium on his physical health, 
nothing as to whether he succeeded in reducing his consump- 
tion with or without medical aid. But these facts may be 
gleaned from his case, if we can place faith in the state- 
ments of an opium-eater : — 

(1 .) He resorted to opium for relief from physical torture 
of the severest description. 

(2.) He used it intermittently, ''about once in three 
weeks " for eight years, before he became a daily opium- 
eater. During this time he perceived no injurious result. 

(3.) He reached at one time a daily ration of " eight, ten^ 
or twelve thousand drops of laudanum.'' According to his 
calculation, 8000 drops = 320 grains of opium. His highest 
consumption, therefore, viz., 480 grains, was less than that 
of many confirmed Chinese smokers, who use one tael and 
more per day. One tael = 580 grains. But opium taken 
into the stomach has a much more powerful effect than when 
only the fumes of it enter into the lungs. 

(4.) Under the influence of the larger quantities he suf- 
fered indescribable mental agonies, and sank into mental 
imbecility, which made him dread loss of reason, or of life. 
''The Circean spells of opium" brought on "intellectual 
torpor.'' " But for misery and suffering I might, indeed^ 
be said to have existed in a dormant state." "Nothing 
short of mortal anguish in a physical sense, it seemed^ to 



THB EFFECTS OF OPIUM. 23!) 

wean myself from opium ; yet, on the other hand, death 
through overwhelming terrors — death by brain-fever or 
lunacy^ — seemed too certainly to besiege the alternative 
course/' 

(5.) He succeeded more than once in greatly lowering his 
consumption, to forty daily grains, and at last to five or six 
g^ins daily. But the effort was terrible. 

"1 triumphed. But infer not, reader, from this word 
triumphed a condition of joy or exultation. Think of me as 
one, even when four months had passed, still agitated, 
writhing, throbbing, palpitating, shattered, and much, 
perhaps, in the situation of one who has been racked. 
Meantime, I derived no benefit from any medicine whatever, 
except ammoniated tincture of valerian. The moral of the 
narrative is addressed to the opium-eater, and therefore, of 
necessity, limited in its application. If he is taught to fear 
and tremble, enough has been effected. But he may say 
that the issue of my case is at least a proof that opium, afl^er 
an eighteen years' use, and an eight years' abuse, of its 
powers, may still be renounced." 

De Quincey, malg^ his purpose to defend himself and 
opium-eating as a part of his existence, is constantly adduced 
as condemning the habit. And no wonder. He used opium, 
off and on, for more than fifty years, and therefore proved an 
opium-eater need not be short-lived. He did his best, with 
his enchanting style, to free opium from the stigma of 
inducing mental stagnation. But no one can miss the moral 
of his Confessions, viz. that opium is pre-eminently seductive 
and dangerous. Few of his readers will be encouraged by 
his example to adventure on such a slippery incline. 



XII. 

Sir. D. P. McLeod, Lieutenant-Governor of the Punjaub, 
in evidence before Select Committee, 1871 : — 

" 4649. I understand that opium was extensively used by 
the population of the Punjaub f — ^By the Sikh population. 




240 APPENDIX. 

They form a very small portion of the Panjaab, but they use 
it largely. 

'' 4650. And what is the effect upon them ? — ^They some- 
times become almost torpid for a time^ and then seem to be 
cheered by it. I have seen some of the small Sikh chiefs, 
who have been in the habit of using it, when debarred from 
it at the proper time, become almost imbecile and helpless 
until they got their quantity of opium, and then they got 
lively after a short time ; and I do not think in the end it 
produced any very injurious effects. 

'^ 4654. You think that opium does not shorten life f — ^I 
am not aware that it does. Probably it does when carried 
on to a great extent. I have seen some very fine specimens 
of Sikhs who have been all their lives taking opium." 



XUI. 

Lieutenant-Colonel James Todd, Political Resident at the 
Court of the Bana of Oodipore : — 

" This pernicious plant (the poppy) has robbed the Rajpoot 
of half his virtues ; and while it obscures these, it heightens 
his vices, giving to his natural bravery a character of insane 
ferocity, and to the countenance, which would otherwise 
beam with intelligence, an air of imbecility. Like all stimu- 
lants, its effects are magical for a time ; but the reaction is 
not less certain, and the faded form, or amorphous bulk, too 
often attest the debilitating influence of a drug which alike 
debases mind and body.'' 

Tucker's Memorials, page 154. 

XIV. 

" Opium-eating in Turkey and Persia." Dr. Oppenheim, 
quoted in Pareira's Mat. Med,: — 

'' The habitual opium-eater is instantly recognized by his 
appearance. A total attenuation of body, a withered, yellow 
countenance, a lame gait, a bending of the spine, frequently 



THE EFFECTS OF OIHUM. 211 

to such a degree as to assome a circular form^ and glossy, 
deep -sunken eyes, betray him at the first glance. The 
digestive organs are in the highest degree disturbed, the 
sufferer eats scarcely anything, and has hardly one evacuation 
a week ; his mental and bodily powers are destroyed — ^he is 
impotent. By degrees, as the habit becomes more con* 
firmed, his strength continues decreasing ; the craving for 
the stimulus becomes even greater, and, to produce the 
desired effect, the dose must constantly be augmented. . • • 
After long indulgence, the opium-eater becomes subject to 
nervous or neuralgic pains, to which opium itself brings no 
relief. These people seldom attain the age of forty, if they 
have begun to use opium at an early age. . . . When 
this baneftd habit has become confirmed, it is almost impos- 
sible to break it off ; the torments of the opium-eater, when 
deprived of his stimulant, are as dreadful as his bliss is com- 
plete when he has taken it ; to him night brings the torments 
of hell, day the bliss of Paradise.'^ 



XV. 

Bev.Griffith John, London Missionary Society, Hankow : — 
** I would observe that it is a great mistake to refer opium 
to the same category as tobacco and spirits. On this point 
there is a wonderful unanimity of opinion among those who 
are capable of forming an opinion on the matter. Tobacco, 
beer, and wine may be taken in moderation, and are gene- 
rally believed to be harmless if so used, but even the 
modercUe use of opium is baneful, and, what is worse, it is 
impossible to take it in moderation. The smoker is never 
satisfied with less than the intoxicating effects of the drug. 
He smokes with the view of making himself drunk, and 
his cravings are never appeased until he gets drunk. If 
time and means permit, he lies in a state of ecstatic trance 
or intoxication, from which he desires never to be waked up. 
Opium-smoking cannot be compared with moderate drink- 
ing, but with drunkenness itself. This habit is more 

K 



242 APPENDIX. 

insidious in its approach than that of drinking^ and holds 
its victim with a far more tenacious grasp/' 

{Nonconformist, 1870.) 
'^ Opium-smoking affects the population by producing 
sterility. The excessive use of the drug for three or four 
years deprives the victim of the power liheros pi'oci-eare," 

Ibid. 



XVI. 

Dr. J. H. Bridges, author of Essay on China in '^ Inter- 
national Policy :'* — 

'' I say then, first, that every medical man in Europe knows 
that whereas the use of beer or wine in small quantities is 
in most cases not injurious, the constant use of even small 
doses of opium, except in certain cases of disease, is injurious 
exceedingly. Secondly, whereas beer or wine can easily be 
taken in moderation, like tea or coffee, from year to year, 
without increasing the quantity, opium cannot. It requires 
constant increase to produce its pleasurable effects. This is 
a practical distinction of the greatest moment. In large 
manufacturing towns especially, where mothers of children 
work in factories, the physician sees its baneful effects on 
children to whom it is given by the tired nurse. The dose 
must be constantly increased. Two drops of laudanum — 
that is one-tenth of a grain of opium — are enough to kill an 
infant of a month old. But under the sedulous ministrations 
of the nurse, a dose of sixty drops, equal to three full doses 
for an adult, is at last tolerated and demanded. In Bradford 
the rate of mortality for all classes is high, 25 to 28 per 
1000, as compared with the average in the community of 
22. But the mortality of children under five years is out 
of proportion even to that high standard, 230 per 1000, as 
compared with the general English rate of 150. This I 
know from personal experience to be largely due to opium. 
But it would be entirely erroneous to measure the mis- 
chievous effects of opium merely or mainly by its effects in 



THR EFFECTS OF OPIUM. 243 

shortening life. Nor is it on the intellectoal faculties that 
its worst evils primarily and directly fall. It is the manhood, 
the energy, the will, the concentration of purpose that in 
the first place are attacked and undermined. The iife«long 
suicide of Coleridge and De Quincey is painful evidence of 
this.'' 



XVII. 

Mr, Fortune, botanist and traveller in China : — 
^' From my own experience, I have no hesitation in saying 
that the number of persons who use opium to excess has 

been very much exaggearated I have often seen the 

drug used, and I can assert that in the great majority of 
cases it was not immoderately indulged in. At the same 
time, I am aware that, like the use of ardent spirits in my 
own country, it is frequently carried on to a most lamentable 
excess. 



XVIII. 

Abb6 Hue : — " With the exception of some rare smokers, 
all others advance rapidly towards death, after having passed 
through successive stages of idleness, debauchery, poverty, 
the ruin of their physical strength, and the complete pros- 
tration of their intellectual and moral faculties. Nothing 
can stop. a smoker who has made much progress in the 
habit.'' 



XIX. 



tt 



Dr. Medhurst, of the London Missionary Society: — 
Calculating the shortened lives, the frequent diseases, and 
the actual starvation which are the result of opium-smoking 
in China, we may venture to assert that this pernicious drug 
annually destroys myriads of individuals." 

R 2 



244 APPENDIX- 



XX. 



Mr. A. Wylie, agent of the British and Foreign Bible 
Society in Ghina^ says : — " Any one who has lived for ten 
years among the Chinese can scarcely have a doubt as to 
the destructive effects of opium^ physically, mentally, and 
morally. Undoubtedly this is one of the greatest evils with 
which China is affected, and unless some means be found 
to check the practice, it bids fair to accomplish the utter 
destruction, morally and physically, of that great empire.'* 



XXI. 

Dr. Johnston, of the Chinese Hospital at Shanghai, says : — 
" It is believed by many that the evils resulting from opium- 
smoking are much exaggerated. I do not think so. On 
the contrary, I believe that very few people have the slightest 
conception of the mischief done to the constitution by 
opium-smoking. Unfortunately the principal sufferers are 
the working classes. In their case rapid deterioration of 
health, with loss of muscular power, soon follows the use of 
the drug, and at no late date, disease, starvation, and 
death.'' 

{North China Herald, June 7, 1873.) 



XXII. 

Dr. Anstie, in " Stimulants and Narcotics," pp. 79 and 
147, and 248 :— 

'' With regard to opium, there is dificulty in coming to a 
decision, because the mental phenomena which are caused by 
its use are less familiarly known. In the great majority of 
European constitutions, opium produces nothing resembling 
mental excitement ; the effect on myself, for instance, of 
a large dose, is mere depression and misery. But with most 
Orientals, and with some Europeans, whose constitutions or 
habits of life are peculiar a condition is produced by taking 



THE EFFECTS OP OPIUM. 245 

a large but not fatal dose, which is very remarkable, and 
very difficult to analyze. These persons are able, sometimes 
without any previous practice, to take large quantities of 
opium, without suffering stupefaction ; on the contrary, they 
appear much exhilarated in spirits, and their minds work 
with much freedom ; in some cases muscular power and the 
disposition for exertion seem to be increased, but more fre- 
quently there is great indisposition to locomotion or hard 
work of any kind. These effects last for a period varying 
from eighteen to forty-eight hours ; they are succeeded in 
some cases by a heavy, semi-comatose sleep of long duration, 
in other cases no particular after-effects are noted.'' 

4e 4e a|e a|e a|e a|e 4e 

''In the countries where opium is indigenous, it is an 
article in daily use with the great majority of the population, 
by whom it is employed for a very different purpose than 
that of procuring sleep — in fact, as a powerful and rapidly 
acting stimulant; and in those localities far larger quan- 
tities can be taken without producing any other effect than 
this, than in the countries of Europe, where the poppy is 
only a transplanted growth. Taken in still larger quanti- 
ties even, by the natives of Syria and the East, it proves as 
decidedly and poisonously narcotic as would much smaller 
doses taken by an Englishman ; and this kind of effect is, 
doubtless, often seen as a consequence of the abuse of 
opium by Orientals. But its iwe is an important and a 
genuine one j it acts as a powerful food-stimulant, enabling 
the taker to undergo severe and continuous physical exer- 
tion without the assistance of ordinary food, or on short 
rations of the latter — a fact to which numerous Eastern 
travellers testify. ... To a certain extent, and in certain 
circumstances, the same remarks would apply to natives of 
this country, although the doses taken are, as a rule, much 
smaller than in the East. De Quincey mentions the fact 
that many poor over-worked folk in towns like Manchester, 
consume regularly a moderate quantity of opium ; not using 
it as the means of a luxurious debauch, but simply to re- 



246 APPENDIX. 

move the traces of fatigue and depreBsion : and the expe- 
rience of phyaicianR who know the poor of London would 
testify to the considerable prevalence of this custom among 
that class. It has frequently happened to me to find out, 
from the chance of a patient being brought under my 
notice in the wards of a hospital, that such patient was a 
regular consumer, perhaps of a drachm of laudanum, oc 
from that to two or three drachms per diein, the same dose 
having been used for years, without any variation. And 
I am assured that the practice is very extensively carried 
out in many parts of this country by persons who would 
never think of narcotizing themselves, any more than they 
would of getting drunk ; but who simply desire relief from 
the pains of fatigue endured by an ill-fed, ill-housed body, 
and a harassed mind. These instances appear to me in- 
explicable, except upon the supposition that they depend on 
a kind of food-stimulant effect, similar to that which is 
certainly experienced by the majority of Orientals in taking 
opium ; and they must be carefully distinguished frx)m that 
kind of narcotic delirium which is sometimes sought for by 
the literary dilettante, and of which so vivid an account has 

been left us in the ' Confessions of an Opium Eater.' " 
♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ 4: 

''By degrees the nervous centres, especially those on 
which the particular narcotic used has the most powerful 
influence, become degraded in structure ; this is not merely 
from the direct repeated action of the poison, but also from 
another cause, viz. the small amount of common nutriment 
taken. This is, at least, the case as regards opium and 
alcohol, towards which the digestive system seems to have a 
tolerance, as yet not explained, in virtue of which large 
quantities of them are at last easily accepted, and have the 
effect of satisfying appetite without causing nausea or dis- 
gust. The habitually immoderate opium-eater, or alcohol- 
tippler, most commonly takes very litfcle food; but life is 
supported, in a considerable number of such cases, with 
little apparent diminution of vigour. The result, however. 



THE BPPECTS OF OPIUM. 247 

of this abnormal mode of nutrition is still farther disastrous 
to the nervous system. Deprived of the proper nutriment, 
which it can only derive from an active supply of blood of 
the richest and purest quality, the nervous matter tends 
more and more towards degeneration, and the results of 
such degeneration are very varied. They may tend to 
shorten life, or they may not so tend. The changes in- 
duced in the nervous matter may be such as may lead to a 
sudden catastrophe (such as rupture of brain fibres) which 
may put an end to life at once ; or they may consist merely 
in the gradual shrinking of the brain or spinal cord, or both, 
in bulk, and the degeneration of a certain amount of their 
vesicular matter; and this is probably a more frequent issue 
of chronic narcotism than any positive shortening of life by 

a sudden overwhelming lesion of the nervous centres.'' 
♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ 

** In all cases where degradation of the elements (espe- 
cially the vesicular) of the nervous centres takes place, it is 
easy to understand that narcotic effects could not so easily 
be induced as before. A certain quantity of nervous tissue 
has in fact ceased to fill the role of nervous tissue, and there 
is less of impressible matter upon which the narcotic may 
operate; and hence it is that the confirmed drunkard, 
opium-eater, or eoquero (coca-eater of Peru), requires more 
and more of his accustomed narcotic to produce the intoxi- 
cation which he delights in.^ 



f> 



APPENDIX B. 

ON THE PROBABLE NUMBER Of OPIUM- 
SMOKERS IN CHINA. 

Db. Lockhaet (Medical Missionary, p. 386), says : — 

" As to the probable miinber of smokers, we have only 
approximate calcalations. Innes, writing on the subject in 
December, 1836, supposed that a tael or an ounce a day is 
the proper allowance for a confirmed opium-smoker. A 
writer in the Repository for October, 1837, gives only 
three candarens, or seventeen and a half grains a day for a 
moderate smoker. Both estimates seem to be in error, the 
one being excessive, and the other defective. On inquiry of 
the Chinese in Shanghai, in the present day, the invariable 
answer is a mace, or a dram, a day for moderate smokers, 
adding that there are few who confine themselves to this 
amount; the most of them consuming two, three, and five 
mace a day, in order to keep up the stimulus once excited by 
a single mace. Assuming the proportion of a mace a day as 
the average amount of daily consumption of each person to 
be correct, we can easily arrive at the number of smokers 
throughout the empire. Proceeding upon the statement 
of the China Mail that 67,000 chests were delivered in 
China last year, and that each chest contained seventy 
catties of smokeable extract, allowing to each smoker one 
mace a day, we have little more than two million smokers 
for the whole empire! .... Supposing the native-grown opium 
to be one half the amount of the imported, it would then 
raise the amount of smokers to somewhere about three 
millions, about one per cent, of the population.^' 

This was in 1854. A proportional calculation for 1874 
would make the number under four millions. This talliea 



ox THE NUMBER OF OPIUM-SMOKBHS. 



249 



with Sir B. Alcock's evidence before the Committee^ as 
follows : — 

" My own opinion is that we very much exaggerate the 
area of consumption, because we know very well what is 
brought to China from abroad; and that it does not exceed 
80,000 chests ; although we do not know equally certainly 
what amount is now grown in the provinces. It is roughly 
estimated that about half that amount is grown. We know 
also that the ordinary consumption of a Chinese, who can 
afford it, is from half a mace to a mace a day, and a great 
many of them smoke more. Supposing that you have 
120,000 chests of opium, and that every man smokes^ say, 
his mace a day, you will see that you have not got above 
three or four millions of people who can consume it at all/' 
(Beport, East India Finance, 1871, p. 275.) 

Dr. Dudgeon, in his seventh Peking Hospital Report, 
says : — 

" The following figures may be taken as approximately 
true, drawn from a careful inquiry and comparison of the 
statements submitted to me. 



CUsa. 


Per cent. 


Among 


; small officials 


40 


i> 


Agriculturists and field labourers 


4to 6 


rf 


Ditto in drug-producing provinces 


40 to 60 


yi 


Merchants in Peking, about 


20 


)i 


Mercantile community at the ports 


30 


99 


Followers and servants of mandarins . 


70 to 80 


y> 


Female attendants .... 


30 to 40 


39 


Soldiers 


20 to 30 


99 


The literary class .... 


20 to 30 


99 


Eonnchs of the palace 


50 


99 


Manchu bannermen .... 


30 to 40 


99 


Male population in China generally. 






prolwibly 


80 to 40 


99 


The general city population 


40 to 60 



252 APPENDIX. 

'^ 554 1. I suppose that about three pipes of opium a day 
would be rather beneficial than otherwise^ if a man could 
keep to that ? — ^No^ I think not ; because if a man is in the 
habit of smoking three pipes a day, and by any misfortune 
he could not get his supply of opium, he would be yery ill/' 
(Report, East India Finance, 1871, p. 253.) 

In respect to the number of smokers, Mr. Cooper has 
what I cannot but look upon as an exaggerated notion. He 
says, ''You would destroy one-third of the population of 
China if they were deprived of opium;" and again, "I 
should say that one-third of the adult population would die 
for the want of opium." If so many as one-third of the 
adults are opium-smokers, where does all the opium come 
from ? Probably Mr. Cooper has judged of the whole popu- 
lation by the chair-coolies who carried him, and the traders 
he met with at inns. In Southern China the passengers on 
board the steamers and native passage-boats indulge their 
habit freely on board the vessels. If one might judge of the 
proportion of smokers to the whole adult male population, 
from what is commonly witnessed among these passengers, 
it would probably fall short of one-tenth instead of reaching 
to near one-third. In country districts, out of the track of 
commerce, it might be found that opium-smoking is rare. 
It is not equally distributed over the whole empire ; at least, 
there is every reason to suppose the contrary. In the treaty- 
ports and districts adjacent to them, and in the provinces 
growing native opium, it will be found most frequent. 

This view is supported by the memorial of Choo-Tsun to 
the Emperor, in 1836, in opposition to the proposition to 
legalize the trade, and only to prohibit the officers and mili- 
tary to smoke. He says : — 

'' It is said, indeed, that when repealing the prohibitions, 
the people only are to be allowed to deal in and smoke the 
drug, and that none of the officers, the scholars, and the 
military are to be allowed this liberty. But this is bad 
casuistry. It is equal to the popular proverb, ''Shut a 



ON THE mTMBER OF OPIUM- SMOKERS. 253 

woman's ears before yoa steal her earrings." The officers^ 
with all the scholars and the military^ do not amount to more 
than one-tenth of the whole popnhition, and the other nine- 
tenths are all the common people. The great majority of 
those who at present smoke opiom are the relatiyes and 
dependents of the officers of Grovemment, whose example 
has extended the practice to the mercantile classes^ and has 
gradually contaminated the inferior officers^ the military, and 
the scholars. Those who do not smoke are the common 
people of the villages and hamlets.^' 

The Bev. Joseph Edldns, of the London Missionary Society, 
Peking, says : — 

''At Shanghai, fifty-fiye per cent, of men smoke. In Shan- 
tung, fifteen per hundred in towns. None in many villages. 
The practice is still spreading." 



i 



APPENDIX C. 

ACTION OP THE INDIAN GOVERNMENT IN 
INCREASING THE SUPPLY OF OPIUM FOR 
THE FOREIGN TRADE. 

It is difficult to get the English public to realize the fact 
that, as regards the production of opium for the foreign 
trade, the British Government of India is a commercial firm, 
animated by the spirit of trade. The Viceroy and his 
Council in Calcutta, the Secretary of State for India and his 
Council in Parliament- street, ai*e, when they come to deal with 
opium, in a position exactly similar to that of Messrs. Jardine, 
Matheson, and Co., and Messrs. Sassoon and Co. There is 
one difference, viz., that the private merchants put the profits 
in their own pockets ; the public merchants trade for the 
public treasury. But it is to be feared this difference is far 
from guaranteeing in our statesmen-merchants that indif- 
ference* to the pecuniary result of their commerce which 
would insure an impartial verdict on its moral character. 
Moreover, the Secretaries of State and Viceroys are but 
temporary chiefs of an enormous bureaucracy, the permanent 
officials of which are the practical Government of India, and 
their interests are directly as well as indirectly concerned in the 
affluence of the Indian Treasury. If any one will only read 
their own published documents, it will convince him that, 
with a few honourable exceptions, Indian officialdom has 
been as much biassed in favour of the opium trade as the 
private opium-dealers have been, and by a similar cause — its 
profitableness. 

Our first witness is Mr. St. George Tucker, Finance 
Minister in the Indian Government, and afterwards twice 



INDIA INCREASING THE SUPPLY. 255 

Chairman of the Court of Directors. He wrote to Sir Robert 
Peel : '- 

'^ When I was connected with the finances of India^ the 
policy pursued in the management of the monopoly was to 
draw the largest revenue from the smallest quantity of the 
drug . . . But when the province of Malwa came under 
our dominion^ it occurred to some of our functionaries that 
an opium revenue might be obtained at Bombay analogous 
to that derived from the monopoly of the manufacture in 
Bengal, and every possible stimulus was given to the culti- 
vation of the poppy. . . . From this time an entire change 
in our policy took place, and it became the object of the 
Government to crush the competition from other quarters, 
which high prices might engender, and to draw the same 
revenue from a large quantity at lower rates.'' 

And in a similar strain to Mr. Marjoribanks :* — 

" For the last twenty years we have been encouraging the 
production by all possible means, and we now export to 
China alone the enormous quantity of 27,000 chests. This 
I have always considered an intolerable evil.'' 

He also addressed an earnest remonstrance to the Court of 
Directors : — 

" Ever since I had the honour of being a member of this 
Court I have uniformly and steadily opposed the encourage- 
ment given to the extension of the manufacture of opium ; 
but of late years we have pushed it to the utmost height, 
and disproportionate prices were given for the article in 
Malwa. We contracted burdensome treaties with the Bajpoot 
States to introduce and extend the cultivation of the poppy. 
We introduced the article into our own districts, where it 
had not been cultivated before, or where the cultivation had 
been abandoned, and we gave our revenue officers an interest 
in extending the cultivation in preference to other produce 
much more valuable and deserving of encouragement. 
Finally, we established retail shops, which brought it to 
every man's door. How different was the policy of Lord 

> Kaye's Adx^iniatration. t xbid. 



253 APPRNDIX. 

was possible a few years ago to make so immense an increase 
of production in so short a time, I should hope that it might 
be found practicable to make the far smaller increase that is 
now required in a much smaller space of time than now 
appears to be contemplated. Whether very much can be 
done during the present year is unfortunately doubtful, for 
the season is now far advanced. Still it may not be too late 
to do something more than has been already proposed. I 
recommend that the Lieutenants-Governor be immediately 
addressed on this subject, and that he be requested to con- 
sider whether measures might not still be taken with 
advantage, which would increase the area of opium cultivation 
in the season of 1869-70 to something like the full amount 
necessary to give an average annual production of 54,500 
chests. Even if it be too late now to accomplish this 
altogether, any increase of cultivation which can be brought 
about without excessive expenditure will be a clear gain. 

*' 626. I think that special inquiry should be made as to 
the possibility of profitably extending the cultivation of 
opium in the districts of the North- Western Provinces, in 
which canal irrigation is available. It seems not improbable 
that we might thus diminish to some extent the precarious- 
ness of production which now causes so much difficulty.'' 

Demi-official, from the Honourablb W. Geet, Lieuienant 
Oovemor of Bengal, dated Barraekpore, 22nd April, 1869. 

To G. H. Campbell, Esq. 

*' 689. I have a telegraphic message from Simla, urging 
' that every possible expedient that you (I) approve should 
be used even now to extend the opium cultivation next 
season to the utmost practicable extent/ 

" 640. From all accounts it is not practicable to do anything 
more in the Behar Agency. The figures you sent me the 
other day show the area of cultivation to have been larger in 
1867-68 than in any previous year, and Abercrombie seems 
positive that it cannot be further stretched without taking 
up altogether new fields of operation. 



y 



( 
INDIA INCREASING THE SUPPLY. 259 

" 641. But are you quite satisfied that the fullest possible 
extension (that is^ of course^ under existing circumstances, 
and without an increase of price) is being pushed in the 
Benares Agency ? I see from the figures you sent me that 
the cultivation of that agency was in 1863-64 358,000 
beegahs, which gave the large yield of 51,542 maunds, an 
average of 5-1 If per beegah. In 1867-68 the cultivation 
was 265,572 beegahs. If Carnac should see his way to 
doing anything more than he has done already to extend the 
cultivation for next season, you need not hesitate to sanction 
it at once/' 

Minute by Sib B. Tkhvul,^ dated 27th April, 1869. 

''642. On the general question of the opium supply I do 
not wish to controvert anything which Mr. Strachey has 
written in his Minute of the 20th. 

" 643. In the general principles on which his opinion is 
based, I concur. 

" 644. I am clear for extending the cultivation, and for 
insuring a plentiful supply. If we do not do this, the 
Chinese will do it for themselves. They had better have 
our good opium than their own indifierent opium. There 
really is no moral objection to our conduct in this respect. 

" 645. I, therefore, quite agree with Mr. Strachey in the 
general policy of increjising the cultivation. 

" 646. But I think that even here caution is required. If 
we suddenly increased it in every direction, and if after that 
there ensued a 'bumper' harvest, we might have more 
opium on our hands than we could dispose of, and, inasmuch 
as we must pay for all th^t is brought by our ryots, the 
expenditure would be great.^ 



}} 



{Extracts from) No. 533, dated 14th May, 1869. 

From II. B. Chapman, Esq., Offg. Secy, to the Oovt. of India, 

Financial Dept., 
To the Secretary to the Ooveit^ment of Bengal, 
" 687. I am directed in continuation of my letter No. 2069, 

s 2 



260 APPENDIX. 

dated 17th ultimo^ to address yoa on the sabject of the 
arrangements that are necessary for insuring an increased 
supply of opium 

" 695. (9.) It is impossible not to regard with anxiety the 
possibility that in consequence of the deficiency of supply, 
the price next year will increase to such an extent as to 
furnish a dangerous stimulus to competition with the Indian 
drug in the China market. If^^ unfortunately^ the crop of 
next season should be again deficient in quantity, the con- 
sequences to our opium reyenue might be permanently 
disastrous. 

''696. (10.) It is true that a succession of favourable 
seasons may extricate the Government from its present 
difficulties, but his Excellency in Council considers the risk 
of depending upon such a fortunate contingency too great to 
be accepted. His Excellency in Council is therefore of 
opinion that the most energetic measures should be taken 
to increase the cultivation^ with the least possible delay, to 
not less than 790,500 beegahs, as estimated by the Lieutenant 
(Jovemor, or to 800,000 beegahs. 

'' 697. (11.) The Governor-General in Council observes that 
in the three years ending with 1861-62, the opium culti- 
vation was extended from 435,000 to 832,000 beegahs. The 
provision of opium was : — 



In 1860-61 29,358 chests, 

. 39,656 
1862-63 . 



and ,. 1863-64 






. 49,727 „ 
. 64,269 „ 



If it was possible then to bring about so immense an 
increase of cultivation and production in so short a time, his 
Excellency in Council thinks that it may be found practicable 
to effect the far smaller increase that is now required in a 
shorter time than now appears to be contemplated. It may 
not be too late to do something more than has been proposed 
even for the coming season. 

"698. (12.) Any increase of cultivation that can be obtained 



INDIA INCREASING THE SUPPLV. 261 

without ezcessivo expenditure <will apparently be a clear 
gain. The Government of India thinks that special inquiry 
should be made as to the possibility of profitably extending 
the cultivation of the poppy in the districts of the North- 
western Provinces in which canal irrigation is available. It 
seems not impossible that in this way the precariousness of 
production which causes so much difficulty might to some 
extent be diminished/' 

These extracts make it abundantly evident that our 
Indian Government does not hold the calm^ indifferent 
position of a superior authority laying a heavy tax upon an 
injurious article^ the consumption of wiiich it cannot pre- 
vent ; but^ on the contrary^ that it enters into the trade 
with the same eager desire for its increase that a private 
capitalist would feel. Who does not blush to think that a 
British Government should be engaged in the sordid pursuit 
of profits raised from Chinese opium-smoking dens ? 

But the most painful evidence is found in the result of 
Sir Rutherford Alcock's visit to Oalcutta, in 1870. Our 
ambassador went from Peking to the capital of our Indian 
empire with the revision of the Treaty of Tientsin in his 
hands^ in which revision he had agreed to grant to the 
Chinese an increase of duty on opium of about two and 
a half per cent., in return for certain privileges to be 
granted to English commerce. Sir R. Alcock laid the 
matter before the Indian Council, urging them not to 
oppose this concession, and setting forth the strong moral 
objections to the trade. The whole account of this inter- 
view and its sequences may be read in the Calcutta Opium 
Papers.' 

''In answer to questions put by his Excellency the 
Viceroy and others. Sir Rutherford Alcock said that he had 
no doubt that the abhorrence expressed by the Government 
and people of China for opium, as destructive to the Chinese 
nation, is genuine and deep-seated ; and that he was also 

* Papers relating, &c., 1870, Addenda m to Appendiic IV. 



262 APPENDIX. 

quite conyinced that the Chinese GrOTemment conld^ if it 
pleased^ cany out its threat of developing cultivation to any 
extent. On the other hand^ he believed that so strong was 
the popular feeling on the subject^ that if Britain would give 
up the opium revenue and suppress the cultivation in India^ 
the Chinese Government would have no difficulty in sup- 
pressing it in China^ except in the province of Yunnan, 
where its authority is in abeyance. 

" He then read extracts from his despatch (copy is in the 
office) to Lord Clarendon upon the question, and he dwelt 
upon the fact that the additional import duty was largely 
nominal, as the Chinese could impose what transit duties 
they pleased upon opium, and did impose upon it very heavy 
duties of this kind. 

" Sir R. Temple inquired whether the Chinese Govern- 
ment would be willing to enter into an agreement for 
repressing the growth of the poppy in China, upon con- 
dition that the Government of India would fix a limit to the 
amount of opium to be sent to China ; also, whether they 
would have the power and the will to observe their side of 
any such agreement. Sir Butherford Alcock thought that 
they would be ready to adopt any reasonable proposition, 
and would be able to carry it out more or less effectually. 

'* He repeated that the Chinese Government did certainly 
hope and desire that the British Government would agree to 
some arrangement for giving effect to the wish of China for 
the discouragement of the consumption of opium by the 
Chinese people.'' 

The Viceroy and his Council discussed the matter, and 
came to the conclusion that the Government could not pro- 
test against the additional import duty; but adopted the 
following resolution : — 

No. 2090, dated 25th March, 1870. 

RESOLUnON.— JBy the Government of India Firumdal 

Department. 

" Resolution. — The (Jovernment of Bengal shall be in- 



INDIA INCREASING THE SUPPLY. 263 

formed that the Supreme GrOTemment has resolved to 
increase the annual provision of opium in Bengal for export 
to China to 60^000 chests^ gradually indeed^ but still with as 
much promptitude as may be conveniently practicable^ and 
will be prepared to sanction any expenditure that, on full 
consideration, may appear necessary for this object. It is 
not deemed needful at present to raise the price paid to the 
cultivators to 5 Bs. a seer, but the Supreme Government 
recognizes the probability that this concession must soon be 
made, and will be prepared to consider favourably any re- 
commendation made by the Government of Bengal for such 
an increase if it be found by experience that effect cannot 
otherwise be given to this Besolution. 

'' Ordered, that the foregoing Besolution be communicated 
to the Government of Bengal for information and guidance.^' 



Afber reading this, who will have the face to assert that 
the Bengal monopoly is simply a mode of taxation ? 



APPENDIX D. 

HISTORICAL. 

EXTRACTS FROM " CORRESPONDENCE RELATING 

TO CHINA/' 1840. 

No. 6L 
Sib G. B. Robinsok to Yi8CX)unt Palmebston. 

" Hie MajeBty's Cutter < Louisa,' 
" Lintin, Feb. 5, 1836. 

''I SEE no grounds to apprehend the occurrence of any 
fearful events on the north-east coast^ nor can I learn what 
new danger exists. I am assured from the best authority 
that the scuffles between different parties of smugglers and 
mandarins, ^ike engaged and competing in the traffic, are 
not more serious or frequent than in this province. In no 
case have Europeans been engaged in any kind of conflict or 
aflray ; and while this increasing and lucrative trade is in the 
hands of the parties whose vital interests are so totally 
dependent on its safety and continuance, and by whose 
prudence and integrity it has been cherished and brought 
into its present increasing and flourishing condition, I think 
little apprehension may be entertained of dangers emanating 
from imprudence on their part. Should any unfortunate 
catastrophe take place, what would our position at Canton 
entail upon us but responsibility and jeopardy ? from which 
we are now free. 

^' On the question of ' smuggling opium ' I will not enter 
in this place, though, indeed, smuggling carried on actually 
in the mandarin boats can hardly be termed such. When- 



HlSTORICAfi. 265 

ever his Majesty's Government direct us to prevent British 
ships engaging in the traffic^ we can enforce any order to 
that effect ; but a more certain method would be to prohibit 
the growth of the poppy and manufacture of opium in 
British India ; and if British ships are in the habit of com- 
mitting irregularities and crimes, it seems doubly necessary 
to exercise a salutary control over them by the presence of 
an authority at lintin/' 



No. 82. 
Captain Elliot to the Fobeion Office. 

" Macao, July 27, 1836. 

'' It has been a confusion of terms to call the opium trade 
a smuggling trade ; it was a formally-prohibited trade, but 
there was no part of the trade of this country which had the 
more active support of the local authorities. It commenced 
and has subsisted by the hearty connivance of the mandarins, 
and it could have done neither the one nor the other without 
their constant concurrence.^' 



No. 110. 
Captain Elliot to Viscount Palmerston. 

" Canton, Nor. 19, 1837. 

^'The native boats have been burned, and the native 
smugglers scattered ; and the consequence is, as it was fore- 
seen it would be, that a complete and very hazardous change 
has been worked in the whole manner of conducting the 
Canton portion of the trade. 

** The opium is now carried on (and a great part of it 
inwards to Whampoa) in European passage-boats belonging 
to British owners, slenderly manned with Lascar 8eam«>^ 



2 66 APPENDIX. 

and f amislied with a scanty armament, which may be rather 
said to provoke or to justify search, accompanied by violence, 
than to famish the means of effectual defence. 

T» ^F ^F ^P ^P ^P I* 

" In fact, my lord, looking around me, and weighing the 
whole body of circumstances as carefully as I can, it seems 
to me that the moment has arrived for such active interpo- 
sition upon the part of her Majesty's Grovemment as can 
properly be afforded, and that it cannot be deferred without 
great hazard to the safety of the whole trade, and of the 
persons engaged in its pursuit.'^ 



No. 116. 
Viscount Paucibston to Captain Elliot. 

" June 16th, 1838. 

'' With respect to the smuggling trade in opium, which 
forms the subject of your despatches of the 18th and 19th 
November, and 7th December, 1837, I have to state that 
her Majesty's Government cannot interfere for the purpose 
of enabling British subjects to violate the laws of the 
country to which they trade. Any loss, therefore, which 
such persons may suffer in consequence of the more 
effectual execution of the Chinese laws on the subject, 
must be borne by the parties who have brought that loss on 
themselves by their own acts.'' 



No. 137. 
Captain Elliot to Viscount Palmebstok. 

January 2nd, 1899. 






... I have now to inform your lordship that Mr. Innes 
applied to the provincial government for a passport, and left 



HISTOBICAL. 267 

this place for Macao on the 16th ultimo, having previously 
forwarded a declaration to his Excellency, confessing that 
the opium was his, that it came from his boat, and not from 
the American ship, and absolving the two coolies from all 
artful participation in the offence, upon the ground that 
they were ignorant of the contents of the boxes. The diffi- 
culty which remained to be removed before the trade could 
be re-opened, was the illicit traffic in opium carried on in 
small craft within the river, a considerable number of which 
were stationary at Whampoa, receiving their supplies from 
time to time in other vessels of a similar description, from 
the opium ships at Lintin or Hong Kong. 

"The senior Hong merchants,, on the evening of my 
arrival in Canton (the 12th ult.), complained in bitter 
terms that they should be exposed to the cruel and ruinous 
consequences which were hourly arising out of the existence 
of this forced trade, not merely at Whampoa, but at the 
factories themselves, of which they were the proprietors, 
and, therefore, under heavy responsibility to the Govern- 
ment. And they insisted that they would not carry on the 
lawful commerce (having the governor's sanction for their 
conduct) till effectual steps were taken for the suppression 
of this dangerous eviL .... 

'' Carefully considering the critical posture of those 
momentous interests confided to me, I resolved, as a pre- 
liminary measure, upon an appeal to the whole community ; 
not only with some hope that such a proceeding might have 
the effect of clearing the river of these boats, but because 
(if the case were otherwise) I felt it became me distinctly 
to forewarn her Majesty's subjects concerned in these 
practices of the course which it was my determination to 
pursue. On the 17th ultimo, therefore, I convened a 
general meeting of all the foreign residents at Canton in 
this hall, and addressed them in the manner your lordship 
will find reported in the accompanying note,^ taken at the 

' Vids infra. 



268 APPENDIX. 

moment by my secretary. On the 1 8th I promulgated the 
enclosed notice,' and having ascertained that the smuggling 
boats were still at Whampoa on the 23rd (some of them 
wearing British ensigns and pendants), I addressed tho 
accompanying note * to his Excellency the governor.*' 

'' Having now drawn the statement of these proceedings 
to a close, I may turn to a more particular explanation of 
the motives and the manner of my interposition. It had 
been clear to me, my lord, from the origin of this peculiar 
branch of the opium trafBc, that it must grow to be more 
and more mischievous to every branch of the trade, and 
certainly to none more than to that of opium itself. As the 
danger and shame of its pursuit increased, it was obvious 
that it wotdd fall by rapid degrees into the hands of more 
and more desperate men; that it would stain the foreign 
character with constantly aggravating disgrace in the sight 
of the whole of the better portion of this people; and lastly, 
that it would connect itself more and more intimately with 
our lawful commercial intercourse, to the great peril of vast 
public and private interests. 

" Till the other day, my lord, I believe there was no part 
of the world where the foreigner felt his life and property 
more secure than here in Canton, but the grave events of 
the 12th ultimo have left a different impression. For a 
space of near two hours the foreign factories were within 
the povrer of an immense and excited mob, the gate of one 
of them was absolutely battered in, and a pistol was fired 
out, probably without ball, or over the heads of the people, 
for at least it is certain that nobody fell. If the case had 
been otherwise, her Majesty's Government and the British 
public would have had to learn that the trade and peaceful 
intercourse with this Empire was indefinitely interrupted by 
a terrible scene of bloodshed and ruin. And all these 
desperate hazards have been incurred, my lord, for the 
scrambling and, comparatively considered, insignificant 

« Ibid. 



HISTORICAL. 269 

gains of a few reckless individaals^ unquestionably found- 
ing their conduct upon the belief that they were exempt 
from the operation of all law, British or Chinese/^ 

"I should observe in this place that the remarkable 
vigour, not merely of the local, but of the general Govern- 
ment, for some months back, furnished additional causes to 
apprehend some exceedingly serious dilemma. And regard- 
ing the subject in every point of view, I could not but 
perceive that a person in my station should lose no time in 
taking such a position as would give weight to his repre- 
sentations in any moment of emergency .^^ 



Inclosure 7 in No. 137. 

Captain Eluot's Addbkss at a Gbnbral Meeting of all 

FoBEioN Residents at Canton. 

" 17th December, 1838. 

''.... Seeking, however, for the immediate source of 
this critical interruption of the usual course of events, he 
felt bound to say that he found it in the existence of an 
extensive traffic in opium, conducted in small boats upon 
the river. The present results of that traffic should be 
shortly stated and considered; the actual interruption of 
the legal trade, the seizure and imminent jeopardy of inno- 
cent men, the daily exposure of every native connected with 
the foreigners to similar disastrous consequences, the life 
and property of the whole foreign community at the mercy 
of an immense mob for the space of at least two hours, the 
distressing degradation of the foreign character, the painful 
fact that such courses exposed us more and more to the just 
indignation of this Government and people^ and diminished 
the sympathies of our own; of its futurity it might safely be 
predicted that it would fall into the hands of the reckless, 
the refuse, and probably the convicted, f>{ all the countries 



27U APPENDIX. 

in oar neighbourhood. Attentively considering all these 
points^ Captain Elliot felt that it became him to explain the 
coarse which it was his purpose to parsae with the view to 
the re-establishment of a safer and more creditable con- 
dition of circumstances. He should forthwith serve a notice 
upon the boats in the river to the eflfect that, if they were 
British-owned, and were either actually or occasionally 
engaged in the traffic, they must proceed outside within 
three days, and cease to return with any similar pursuits ; 
that failing their conformity with those injunctions, he 
should place himself in communication with the provincial 
Government, and frankly and fully express the views of his 
own, upon the necessary and perfectly admissible treatment 
of so serious an evil. He could not, however, help indulging 
the hope that the general reprobation of the whole com- 
munity would have the effect of relieving him from 
the performance of a duty on many accounts extremely 
painful to him.'' 



Inclosure 8 in No. 137. 

PuBUC Notice to hkb MijssTT^s Subjects.' 

'' I, Charles Elliot, Chief Superintendent of the trade of 
British subjects in China, moved by urgent considerations, 
immediately affecting the safety of the lives and properties 
of all her Majesty's subjects engaged in the trade at Canton, 
do hereby formally give notice and require that all British- 
owned schooners, cutters, or otherwise rigged small craft, 
either habitually or occasionally engaged in the illicit opium 
traffic within the Bocca Tigris, should proceed forth of the 
same within the space of three days from the date of these 
presents, and not return within the said Bocca Tigris being 
engaged in the said illicit opium trade. 

''And I, the said Chief Superintendent, do further give 

* CorreRpondence, 1840, p. S34. 



HISTORICAL. 271 

notice and warn all her Majesty's subjects^ engaged in the 
aforesaid illicit opium traffic within the Bocca Tigris^ in such 
schooners^ catters^ or otherwise rigged small crafty that if 
any native of the Chinese empire shall come by his or her 
death by any wound feloniously inflicted by any British sub- 
ject or subjeofeSy any such British subject or subjects^ being 
duly convicted thereof^ are liable to capital punishment^ as 
if the crime had been committed within the jurisdiction of 
her Majesty's courts at Westminster. 

'' And I, the said Chief Superintendent^ do further give 
notice and warn all British subjects being owners of 
such schooners, cutters, or otherwise rigged small craft, 
engaged in the said illicit opium traffic within the Bocca 
Tigris, that her Majesty's Government will in no way inter- 
pose if the Chinese Government shall think fit to seize and 
confiscate the same. 

" And I, the said Chief Superinteildent, do further give 
notice and warn all British subjects employed in the said 
schooners, cutters, and otherwise rigged small craft, engaged 
in the illicit opium traffic within the Bocca Tigris, that the 
forcible resisting of the officers of the Chinese Government 
in the duty of searching and seizing, is a lawless act, and 
that they are liable to consequences and penalties in the same 
manner as if the aforesaid forcible resistance were opposed 
to the officers of their own or any other Government in their 
own or any foreign country. 

" Given under my hand and seal of office at Canton, this 
eighteenth day of December, in the year of our Lord one 
thousand eight hundred and thirty-eight. 

(Signed) "Chaeles Elliot, Ac, &c.'' 



Inclosure 14 in No. 137. 
Official Notice to hbb Majesty's Subjects. 

Slat Deeember, 1838. 

♦ * ♦ 4( 3tC SfC 3|l 

'' Af teV the most deliberate reconsideration of this course 



272 APPENDIX. 

of traffic (which he heartily hopes* has ceased for ever) ^ the 
Chief Superintendent will once more declare his own opinion, 
that in its general effects it was intensely mischievoas to 
every branch of the trade, that it was rapidly staining the 
British character with deep disgrace, and, finally, that it 
exposed the vast public and private interests involved in the 
peaceful maintenance of our regular commercial intercourse 
with this empire, in imminent jeopardy. 

" Thus profoundly impressed (and after the failure of his 
own public entreaties and injunctions), the Chief Superin- 
tendent feels that he would have betrayed his duty to his 
gracious sovereign and his country, if he had hesitated 
beyond the period he had formerly fixed, effectually to 
separate her Majeety^s Government from any direct or 
implied countenance of this dangerous irregularity. '' . • . . 



Inclosure 9 in No. 137. 
Captain Elliot to the Govebnob of Cantov. 

Deoember 23rd, 1838. 

.... Seeking for the immediate source of this dan- 
gerous state of things, he finds it in the existence of an 
extensive opium traffic, conducted in small craft within the 
river. .... 



« 



it 



The Government of the British nation will regard these 
evil practices with no feelings of leniency, but, on the con- 
trary, with severity and continual anxiety : in proof of this, 
the undersigned has now to acquaint your Excellency that he 
has already, on the 18 th day of this month, formally required 
all boats (owned by British subjects) engaged in this traffic, 
to leave the river within three days. 

'^ He cannot faithfully declare that these injunctions have 
been fulfilled, and he has, therefore, now to request that 
your Excellency will signify your pleasure through the 
honourable officers, the Ewang Ghowfoo and Kwanghee, so 



HISTOfilOAL. 273 

that all those concerned in these pursuits may know that ho 
has received yoar Excellency's authority for this notice. 

''.... It is further to be desired that your Excellency 
would command the honourable oflScers^ who may be em- 
ployed on this occasion, to proceed to the station of tho 
boats, with the undersigned, in order that the peaceful and 
tho well-disposed may not bo involved in tho same con- 
sequences as the perverse. 

(Signed) " Charles Elliot, Ac, &c/* 



Inclosure 10 in No. 137. 

This Pbefect akd Commandant, jointly, of Canton to 

Captain Eluot. 

♦ ♦ « ♦ :|c :|c :|c 

''The said superintendent came, I find, to Canton in 
obedience to commands received from his sovereign to 
exercise control over the merchants and seamen, to repress 
the depraved, and to extirpate evils. Having sucb com- 
mands given him, he must needs also have powers. It is 
very inexplicable, then, that these boats, having in violation 
of the laws entered the river, he should now find it difficult 
to send them out again, owing to his not having the 
confidence of all.'' 



€t 



No. 141. 
Captain Eluot to Viscount Palmebston, 

'* SOth Janaaiy, 1889. 

The stagnation of the opium trade at all points, however, 
may be said to have been nearly complete for the last four 
months. And it is now my duty to signify to your lordship 
the expected arrival of a very high officer frpm the court, of 

T 



27 o A^p&^Dix. 

ment^ in order that the opuim may all be received in plain 
conformity thereto, that it may be bamt and destroyed, and 
that thus the evil may be entirely extirpated. There must 
not be the smallest atom concealed or withheld. 

" At the same time, let these foreigners give a bond, written 
jointly in the foreign and Chinese languages, making a de- 
claration to this eflFect : — ' That their vessels, which shall 
hereafter resort hither, will never again dare to bring opium 
with them ; and that should any be brought, as soon as dis- 
covery shall be made of it, the goods shall be forfeited to 
Government, and the parties shall suffer the extreme penal- 
ties of the law, and that such punishment will be willingly 
submitted to/ 

" I have heard that you foreigners are used to attach great 
importance to the word ' good faith/ If then you will 
really do as I, the High Commissioner, have commanded, — 
will deliver up every particle of the opium that is already 
here, and will stay altogether its future introduction, — as 
this will prove, also, that you are capable of feeling contri- 
tion for your offences, and of entertaining a salutary dread 
of punishment, the past may yet be left unnoticed. I, the 
High Commissioner, will, in that case, in conjunction with 
the Governor and Lieutenant-Governor, address the throne, 
imploring the great Emperor to vouchsafe extraordinary 
favour, and not alone to remit the punishment of your past 
errors, but also, as we will further request, to devise some 
mode of bestowing on you his imperial rewards, as an en- 
couragement of the spirit of contrition and wholesome dread 
thus manifested by you. After this you will continue to 
enjoy the advantages of commercial intercourse, and as you 
will not lose the character of being ' good foreigners,' and 
will be enabled to acquire profits and gain wealth by an 
honest trade, will you not stand in a most honourable 
position ?'' .... 



HISTORICAL. 277 

Inclosure 2 in No. 145. 

Edict from the Impkkial Commissioner to toe Honq 

Merchants. 

"With regard, too, to foreigners, such as Jardiue and othern, 
who have been in the habit of selling opium, — all of them 
most artful and crafty men, — when the Imperial pleasure 
was expressed two years ago, that their conduct should 
be inquired into, and that they should be driven forth, 
the said Hong merchants still strenuously defended them. 
Such language as this was used : " That when it could 
bo discovered that there had been any concert in selling 
opium, any money taken, or orders given, punishment would 
then be willingly submitted to." Such a bond is yet to 
be found among the archives I Let them ask themselves, 
whether, according to this bond, punishment should or 
should not be inflicted ? 

'' Again, the opium on board Innes' vessel was seized within 
the river, showing that the bonds given even for vessels that 
have entered the port have been no less unworthy of con- 
fidence.*' .... 



No. 146. 
Captain Eluot to Viscount Palmerston. 

" Canton, March 30, 1839. 

" My Lord, — I have considered that I shall most perspicu- 
ously perform my present duty to her Majesty's Government, 
by confining this despatch to a narrative of events, accom- 
panied by the documents connected with them ; and, indeed, 
niy imprisoned and harassed condition is not suited to a de- 
liberately comprehensive exposition of the motives which 
have influenced some of the momentous proceedings involved 
in this report 

" I then assembled the whole foreign community in Canton 
and reading to them my circulars issued at Macao, enjoined 



278 APPENDIX, 

them all to be moderate^ firm, and united. I had the satia- 
Taction to dissolve the meeting in a calmer state of mind 
than had subsisted for several days past. 

''The native servants were taken from us, and the snpplie 
cut off on the same night ; but it was declared by the mer- 
chants that the orders had been issued in the course of the 
morm'ng, by reason of Mr. Dent^s opposition to the High 
Commissioner's summons. 

" An arc of connected boats was formed, filled with armed 
men, the extremes of which touch the east and west points 
of the bank of tho river in the immediate front of the fac- 
tories, cutting off a segment of the stream from the main 
body; the square and the rear of the factories are occnpied 
in considerable force, and before the gate of this hall the 
whole body of Hong merchants and a large guard are posted 
day and night, the latter with their swords constantly drawn. 
In short, so close an imprisonment of the foreigners is not 
recorded in the history of our previous intercourse with this 
empire 

**Canton, April 2, 1839. 

" The only incidents of interest affecting our general situa- 
tion since I last wrote are the permission to purchase food, 
and the entrance, from time to time, of Coolies under strict 
surveillance, to remove the foul linen. In other respects, 
the blockade is increasing in closeness. Scraps of intelli- 
gence, however, have reached us, brought up by Chinese, in 
cigars and in other adroit modes, from Whampoa, to the 
31st ultimo, and from Macao to tho 80th. All was tranquil 
at either point when these tidings lefl, but the painful anxiety 
of our families and countrymen wiU be conceivable to her 
Majesty's Government." 



EXTBACT FROM CaPTAIN ELLIOTT'S LeTTEB TO TH£ EaBL OF 

Abebdeek. 

" JaanaiT 19, 1842. 

''The condition of the opium market at that time was one 



v: 



HISTOBICAL. 279 

of excessive glut. There were 20^000 chests on the coast 
of China, upwards of 20,000 in Bengal, nearly 12,000 in 
Bombay, making a total of upwards of 50,000 chests ready 
for the market, and the crop of the current year would soon 
have had to be added to this stock. The annual consumption 
at its highest mark had never exceeded 24,000 chests, and 
for the three months preceding delivery, it has already been 
observed that there had been nearly a total stagnation of 
the traffic. So far as the general opium trade and the Indian 
revenue were concerned. Commissioner Liu^s measure was 
one of great relief.^' 



LETTER TO THE QUEEN OP ENGLAND FROM 
THE IMPERIAL COMMISSIONER AND THE 
PROVINCIAL AUTHORITIES REQUIRING THE 
INTERDICTION OP OPIUM. 



ft 



[The paper of which a translation is here given — purport- 
ing to be a letter addressed to the Queen of England — was 
permitted to obtain circulation among the people, in the 
same manner as many official documents commonly do, 
about three months since, when the Commissioner and 
Governor were about to leave Canton to receive the opium 
surrendered in the name of the British Crown. Presumptive 
evidence of its authenticity is afforded by the expression on 
the part of the Commissioner of an anxious desire to know 
how he should convey such a communication to the English 
Sovereign].'' — Chinese Repository, vol. viii. p. 9, May, 
1839. 

'^LIN, high Imperial Commissioner, a director of the 
Board of War, and Governor of the two Hoo; Tang, a 
director of the Board of War, and Governor of the two 
Kwang ; and E, a vice- director of the Board of War, and 
Lieutenant-Governor of Kwangtung, conjointly address this 
communication to the Sovereign of the English nation, for 
the purpose of requiring the interdiction of opium. 



*« 



280 APPENDIX. 

'' That in the ways of Heaven no partiality exists^ and no 
sanction is allowed to the injuring of others for the ad- 
vantage of one's selfj — that in men's natural desires there 
is not any great diversity (for where is he who does not 
abhor death and seek life ?) — ^these are universally acknow- 
ledged principles. And your honourable nation^ though 
beyond the wide ocean^ at a distance of twenty thousand 
miles^ acknowledges the same ways of heaven, the same 
human nature, and has the like perceptions of the dis- 
tinctions between life and death, benefit and injury. 

'' Our heavenly Court has for its family all that is within 
the four seas : the Great Emperor's heaven-like benevolence, 
-—there is none whom it does not overshadow. Even regions 
remote, desert, and disconnected, have a part in the general 
care of life and of well-being. 

'' In Kwang-tung since the removal of the interdicts upon 
maritime communication, there has been a constantly flpw- 
ing stream of commercial intercourse. The people of the 
land, and those who come from abroad in foreign ships, 
have reposed together in the enjoyment of its advantages, 
for tens of years past, even until this time. And as regards 
the rhubarb, teas, raw silk, and similar rich and valuable 
products of China, should foreign nations be deprived of 
these, they would be without the means of continuing life. 
So that the Heavenly Court by granting, in the oneness of 
its common benevolence, permission for the sale and ex- 
portation thereof, — and that without stint or grudge — ^has 
indeed extended its favours to the utmost circuit (of the 
nations) making its heart one with the core of heaven and 
earth. 

" But there is a tribe of depraved and barbarous people, 
who, having manufactured opium for smoking, bring it 
hither for sale, and seduce and lead astray the simple folk, 
to the destruction of their persons, and the draining of their 
resources. Formerly the smokers thereof were few, but of 
late, from each to other the practice has spread its con- 
tagion, and daily do its banefcd effects more deeply pervade 



HISTOBICAL. 281 

the central source^ its rich fmitfal and floarishing popnla- 
tion. It is not to be denied that the simple folk^ inasmuch 
as they indulge their appetite at the expense of their liyes^ 
are indeed themselves the authors of their miseries : and why 
then should they be pitied ? Yet in the universal Empire 
under the sway of the great and pure dynasty, it is of 
essential import^ for the right direction of men's minds, 
that their customs and manners should be formed to correct- 
ness. How can it be borne that the living souls that dwell 
within these seas, should be left wilfully to take a deadly 
poison ! Hence it is that those who deal in opium, or who 
inhale its fumes, within this land, are all now to be subjected 
to severest punishment, and that a perpetual interdict is to 
be placed on the practice so extensively prevailing. 

''We have reflected that this poisonous article is the 
clandestine manufacture of artful schemers, and depraved 
people of various tribes under the dominion of your honour-* 
able nation. Doubtless you, the honourable Sovereign of 
that nation have not commanded the manufacture and sale 
of it. But amid the various nations there are a few only 
that make this opium : it is by no means the case that all 
the nations are herein alike. And we have heard that in 
your honourable nation too, the people are not permitted to 
inhale the drug, and that offenders in this particular expose 
themselves to sure punishment. It is clearly from a know- 
ledge of its injurious effects on man, that you have directed 
severe prohibitions against it. But what is the prohibition 
of its use, in comparison with the prohibition of its being 
sold— of its being manufactured,— as a means of thoroughly 
purifying the source ? 

"Though not making use of it oneself, to venture neverthe- 
less on the manufacture and sale of it, and with it to seduce 
the simple folk of this land, is to seek one's own livelihood 
by the exposure of others to death, to seek one's own 
advantage by other men's injury. And such acts are bitterly 
abhorrent to the nature of man — are utterly opposed to the 
ways of heaven. To the vigorous sway exercised by the 



282 APPENDIX. 

Celestial Court over both the civilized and the barbarous^ 
what difficulty presents itself to hinder the immediate taking 
of life ? But as we contemplate and give substantial being 
to the fulness and vastness of the sacred intelhgence it 
befits us to adopt first the course of admonition. And not 
having as yet sent any communication to your honourable 
sovereignty, — should severest measures of interdiction be all 
at once enforced, it might be said in excuse that no previous 
knowledge thereof has been possessed. 

"We would now then concert with your honourable 
sovereignty means to bring to a perpetual end this opium, 
BO hurtful to mankind : we in this land forbidding the use 
of it, — ^and you, in the nations under your dominion, 
forbidding its manufacture. As regards what has been 
already made, we would have your honourable nation issue 
mandates for the collection thereof, that the whole may be 
cast into the depths of the sea. We would thus prevent 
the longer existence between these heavens and this earth 
of any portion of the hurtful thing. Not only then will the 
people of this land be relieved from its pernicious influence, 
but the people of your honourable nation too (for as they 
make, how know we that they do not also smoke it ?) will, 
when the manufacture is indeed forbidden, be likewise 
relieved from the danger of its use. Will not the result of 
this be the enjoyment by each of a felicitous condition of 
peace ? For your honourable nation's sense of duty being 
thus devout, shows a clear apprehension of celestial prin* 
ciples, and the supreme heavens will ward off from you all 
calamities. It is also in perfect accordance with human 
nature, and must surely need the approbation of sages. 

Besides all this, the opium being so severely prohibited 
in this land, that there will be none found to smoke it, 
should your nation continue its manufacture, it will be 
discovered after all that no place will afford opportunity for 
selling it, that no profits will be attainable. Is it not far 
better to turn and seek other occupation than vainly to 
labour in the pursuit of a losing employment ? 



HISTORICAL. 283 

And furthermore, whatever opiam can be discovered in 
this landj is entirely committed to the flames and consumed. 
If any be again introduced in foreign vessels, it too must be 
subjected to a like process of destruction. It may well be 
feared, lest other commodities imported in such vessels 
should meet a common fate, — the gem and the pebble not 
being distinguished. Under these circumstances gain being 
no longer acquirable, and hurt having assumed a visible 
form, such as desire the injury of others will find that they 
themselves are the first to be injured. 

The powerful instrumentality whereby the Celestial Court 
holds in subjection all nations is truly divine and awo« 
inspiring beyond the power of computation. Lot it not bo 
said that early warning of this has not been given. 

When your Majesty receives this document, let us have 
a speedy communication in reply, advertising us of tlio 
measures you adopt for the entire cutting off of the opium 
in every seaport. Do not by any means by false embolliHh- 
ments evade or procrastinate. Earnestly reflect hereon. 
Earnestly observe these things. 

Taou Kwang, 19th year, 2nd month — day. 

Communication sent to the Sovereign of tlio KrigliMh 
nation.^' 



COPY OF THE LEGAL OPINION taken by tiiu KAHT 
INDIA COMPANY, and datbd tub 5th o» Aihiiiht, 
1857, as to the manufacture and HAI4M cir 
OPIUM. 

Case for the East India Oompany, 

On the 9th March, 1857, the Earl of Bhaflosbury movc»d 
in the House of Lords, that the following qmmtioim bo 
submitted for the opinion of her Majesty's judgcm j— 

First.— Whether, having regard to the 4tli section of an 
Act passed in a session of Parliament holdon in tho third 
and fourth years of the reign of his lato Majesty King 



264 APPENDIX. 

William the Fourth, intituled "An Act for effecting an 
Arrangement with the East India Company and for the 
better Government of his Majesty's Indian territories, till 
the 30th day of April, 1854,'' and other the laws bearing on 
this question, it is lawful for the East India Company to 
derive a revenue from opium by the following system, that 
is to say, — by prohibiting and preventing the g^wth of the 
poppy from which opium is made within their territories, 
except as grown on their account, and under their licence 
and supcrintendency, advances of money being annually 
made by them to the cultivators of the poppy, by way of 
prepayment of the price of all the juice of the poppy of a 
specified consistence, to be produced from the land in respect 
of which such advances are made, such price being estimated 
according to a price fixed by the company for the district in 
which the land happens to be situated, the cultivators 
delivering to the Company as much of such juice as the 
cultivators can produce, such juice being afterwards sent by 
the Company to their factories, and there manufactured by 
them into opium, afterwards sent by them from those 
factories to Calcutta, and there sold by them by auction at 
their sales, the excess of the sale prices over and above the 
first cost constituting the revenue in question. 

Second. — Whether, having regard also to the Supplemental 
Treaty between her Majesty and the Emperor of China, 
bearing date the eighth day of October, 1843, which containB 
the following words, — " A fair and regular tariff of duties 
and other dues having now been established, it is to bo 
hoped that the system of smuggling will entirely cease," it 
is lawful for the East India Company to deal with such opium 
in the manner stated in the first question, with the full 
knowledge that it is so purchased at the above-mentioned 
sales for the purpose of being smuggled into China, in 
contravention of the laws of that empire, and so to cultivate 
and manufacture the same with a view principally to the 
China market, and to its being so purchased for such 
purposes as aforesaid, the Company with that view manufac- 



UISTOUICAL. 285 

turing tho opium into the form which the Company consider 
best adapted to facilitate and promote that contraband trade. 

After some debate^ in the course of which the Lord 
Chancellor used the following language^ viz.: — ''These 
matters, however, having been called to their attention, he 
was prepared to say, on the part of the Government, that 
when they shall have ascertained clearly and distinctly what 
were the facts as to the manufacture of opium by the East 
India Company, how it was done, who were concerned in it, 
how it was disposed of, everything, in short, being distinctly 
stated as matter of fact, the Government would have no 
objection to submitting, though not iu the terms in which 
his noble friend had drawn them up, the question to the 
highest legal authorities whom they could properly consult, 
the law officers of the Crown ; and that with respect to the 
second question, which related to the construction of tho 
treaty concluded with China in 18 1-3, he would say that they 
would consult the law officers of the Crown, with the addition 
of the Queen's Advocate, and their Opinion tlw Government 
would communicate to their Lordships" His lordship also 
reminded the House that there was a well-known distinction 
between a person dealing with tho produce of his own land 
and the ordinary transactions of commerce. The motion 
was by leave withdrawn. 

The President of the Board of Commissioners for tho 
afiOdrs of India has now requested the Court of Directors of 
the East India Company to obtain the opinion of the Queen's 
Adrocato and of the Attorney and Solicitor General and tho 
Company's standing counsel on the points raised in the 
questions proposed by Lord Shaftesbury. 

4c 4e 3|e 3|e 3|e 3|e ♦ 

Your opinion is requested, — 

1st. Whether the manufacture and sale of opium by the 
East India Company, in the manner aforesaid, in the presi- 
dency of Bengal, is or is not in contravention of the Act 
3&4W. IV. c. 85? 

2nd. Whether the legality of the manufacture and sale of 



286 APPENDIX. 

opiam by the East India Company^ in the manner aforesaid, 
is in any way affected by the Supplemental Treaty entered 
into by her Majesty with the Emperor of China^ in October, 
1843? 

Opinion. 

1st. The Stat. 3 & 4 W. IV. c. 85, s. 4, requires the East 
India Company to close their commercial business and sell 
the effects distinguished in their books as commercial assets, 
and to discontinue and abstain from all commercial business 
which shall not be incident to the closing of their actual 
concerns, and to the conversion into money of the property 
hereinbefore directed to be sold, "or whkh shall not he 
carried on for the purposes of the said Oovernment/' thus 
clearly implying that the East India Company were, after 
and notwithstanding that statute, to be at liberty to carry 
on commercial business for the " Purposes of the Govern- 
ment /' and, as it appears by the accompanying '' Supple- 
mental Memorandum,^' that from the year 1813 (when the 
Stat. 53 Geo. III. c. 155, was passed) the Company's accounts 
have been kept (as therein directed) under three distinct 
heads, territorial, political, and commercial, and that the 
profits of the Company's commercial business in opium have 
always been placed to the account of the '' territorial and 
political " branch, and never included in the " commercial " 
accounts, and that this was the state of affairs at the passing 
of the Act 3 & 4 W. IV. c. 85. : We are of opinion that the 
manufacture and sale of opium by the East India Company, 
by which a revenue is acquired and expended for the purpose 
of Government, is not in contravention of the Act of the 
3 & 4 W. IV. c. 85, which statute (on the contrary) must be 
taken to have intentionally permitted and sanctioned the 
continuance of such manufacture and sale for this purpose. 

2nd. We are also of opinion that the legality of the 
manufacture and sale of opium by the East India Company 
is not directly affected by the Supplemental Treaty entered 
into by her Majesty with the Emperor of China in October, 
1 843. Opium is not mentioned in that treaty, and we are of 



HI8T0EI0A.L. 287 

opinion that the East India Company may manufacture and 
sell opium (the revenue of which is applied for the purposes-of 
Government) without infringing the treaty. 

The true question appears to be, whether the particular 
manner in which the East India Company's opium is manufac- 
tured is open to objection ; it appearing by the " Supplemental 
Memorandum " that the opium in which the Company deals 
in the province of Bengal is prepared by the East India Com- 
pany, and before its sale to the dealers specifically for the 
Chinese contraband trade, by being made up in balls and 
packed in chests according to Chinese weights. It is true 
that this practice is in conformity with a course of trade 
established (as we understand) long before any treaty with 
China,and even before the importation of opium was prohibited 
by Chinese law; still we think now that opium is made con- 
traband by the law of China, and that its importation into 
China ii^ made by Chinese law a capital crime, the continuance 
of the Company's practice of manufacturing and selling this 
opium in a form specially adapted to the Chinese contraband 
trade, though not an actual and direct infringemeiit of the 
treaty, is yet at variance with its spirit and intention, and 
with the conduct due to the Chinese Government by that of 
Great Britain as a friendly power, bound by a treaty which 
implies that all smuggling into China will be discountenanced 
by Great .Britain ; and we think that if the practice in question 
were to be made the subject of expostulation by the Chinese 
Government, the British Government would be under an 
obligation to alter or modify the mode adopted by the East 
India Company of manufacturing opium, and to abstam from 
80 manufacturing or preparing it as to involve a peculiar 
adaptation of the article to the Chinese contraband trade as 
distinguished from other trades, and to adhere to this 
modification so long as]opium is absolutely prohibited in China. 

(Signed) J. D. Harding. 

Richard Bethell. 
Hbnrt S. Eeatinq. 

LOFTUS WiGRAll. 
poctors' Commons, Angtist 5, 1857. 



288 APPENDIX. 

COHRESPONDENCE RELATING TO THE EARL OP 

ELGIN'S MISSION, 

No. 1. 
The Eabl of Clarendon to the Eabl of Elgin. 

« Foreign Office, April 20, 1857. 



i€ 



It Will be for your Excellency, when discussing com- 
mercial arrangements with any Chinese plenipotentiaries, to 
ascertain whether the Government of China would revoke 
its prohibition of the opium trade, which the high officers of 
the Chinese Government never practically enforce. Whether 
the legalization of the trade would tend to augment that 
trade may be doubtful, as it seems now to be carried on to 
the full extent of the demand in China, with the sanction 
and connivance of the local authorities. But there would be 
obvious advantages in placing the trade upon a legal footing 
by the imposition of a duty, instead of its being carried on 
in the present irregular manner.^ 



9> 



Inclosure in No. 213. 

Report on the Revision of Tariff, &c. 

..." China still retains her objection to the use of a 
drug on moral grounds; but the present generation of 
smokers, at all events, must and will have opium. To deter 
the uninitiated from becoming smokers, China would propose 
a very high duty; but as opposition was naturally to be ex- 
pected from us in that case, it should be made as moderate 
as possible. He urged, however, that inasmuch as when the 
treaty was signed, opium was not an article within its cogni- 
zance, we should not seek to regulate the duty now to be 
imposed upon it by the five per cent, ad valorem principle. 
. . . They were informed that, according to the data 



HISTOBICAIi. 289 

beforo Lord Elgin^ a duty of from fiftoen to twenty taels m 
chest would be a fair rate on the ad valorem principle. This, 
they repeated, could not apply to opiom, which most be 
treated in every way per se . . » At length, after naming, 
apparently more in joke than in earnest, first sixty taels, and 
then forty taels, a chest, they proposed thirty taels. The 
British deputies pointed out the fact that twenty-four taels 
was the duty now levied sub rosa by the authorities at 
Shanghai, and they were therefore justified in assuming that 
the Chinese Government would not have fixed upon that 
sum had the trade been calculated to bear a higher. After 
much discussion, chiefly upon the probable increase of 
smuggling in the event of the imposition of too high a duty 
— a contingency of which the Chinese deputies expressed 
themselves in no apprehension — it was agreed to put down 
thirty taels per chest on the duty to be levied.'' 



U 



APPENDIX E. 



OPIUM IN BRITISH BURMA. 

Extracts from a Return published Iry the Oovemment of India: 
^^Explanation of Causes of Increase or Decrease of amounts 
on a Comparison of Revenues and Cliarges of the Provinces 
ofBntish Burma" Calcutta, 1873. 

1856-57. Pegu, — ''There is no poppy cultivation in Pegu. 
The import of opium by private individuals is strictly for- 
bidden. The only opium that comes into the province is 
what is supplied^ by orders of the Revenue Boards Bengal, 
to the Deputy Commissioner of districts, on their indenting 
for it. It is retailed by the licensed opium farmers in the 
large towns of the province. The use of this deleterious 
drug, strictly prohibited in the Burman time, has been con* 
siderably on the increase of late." 

1857-58. Pegu. — "In general it may be stated that 
spirituous and other liquors are consumed by the European 
and Indian inhabitants, and opium by the Chinese and 
Burmese. Undoubtedly the consumption of both descrip- 
tions of stimulants is increasing. As a practical question 
for Pegu, the consumption of spirits and opium could only 
be effectually checked by a liquor and drug law applicable 
to all inhabitants' alike, and as such a law is not likely to be 
passed, it only remains, by the imposition of a high rate of 
duty, to endeavour to diminish the quantity accessible to the 
mass of the population to an amount consistent with the 
enjoyment of health and the due exercise of the mental 
faculties.'' 



OPIUM IN BRITISH BURMA. 291 

1870-1871. — "Opium-eating ianota Bwnnan hahit; U %9 
a new vice: and though unfortunately spreading fast^ through 
the evil influence of petty Chinese traders and pedlars^ it has 
not as yet taken such a hold upon the people that any great 
hardship is involved by such a limit being placed on the 
number of places to vend^ as shall prevent the temptation of 
opium-eating being thrown in the way of idle young men in 
large towns and villages by too great facility of supply. 

"Accordingly^ at the outset^ on the annexation of Pegn^ 
the sale of opium in that province was restricted to the 
principal towns which contain Chinese and other foreigners 
who consume opium Of Arakan the Chief Com- 
missioner (Colonel Phayre) wrote in 1865: 'Last year a 
majority of the respectable native Arakanese petitioned me. 
asserting that their own children and most of the young 
men of the country had become drunkards^ and had acquired 
within a few years a craving for spirits and opium. • • • 
In the town of Akyab^ which contains twenty thousand in- 
habitants^ there were over ninety shops for the sale of 
intoxicating liquors and drugs of all sorts. To put an end 
to this the sale of opium was restricted in 18G3-64 to four 
towns ; viz. Akyab^ old Arakan^ Kyouk Phyoo^ and Sando- 
way. In 1864-65 two farms only were allowed, namely, one 
in the town of Akyab, and another on the Arakan side of 
the Chittagong border, in what is known as the Noof dis- 
trict ;' sale in the latter being permitted in order to restrain 
the importation of opium from Chittagong into the Arakan 
district. In 1868-69, however, the two farms in Kyouk 
Phyoo (Ramree district) and Sandoway were re-estaJ/Ushed. 

" The restriction of the sale of opium to particular towns 
still continues, with a caution that 'the error should be 
avoided of limiting sources of supply to such an extent as to 
make smuggling a remunerative occupation.' • • • • 'A 
clause has been inserted in the form, binding them to 
account satisfactorily to the Deputy Commissioner, should 
the quantity of opium taken fall considerably short of what 

V 3 



292 APPENDIX. 

might be expected from the experience of past years to be 
the average sale/ At the same time^ 'district officers 
should use their utmost endeavours to prevent the spread of 
the consumption of this narcotic^ as no purely fiscal con- 
siderations should be allowed to interfere with the arrange- 
ments which may be thought best for the interests of the 
people committed to their charge/ • • • . Owing, however^ 
to the farmer's supply of Government opium at Bs. 20 a 
seer^ being limited to a quantity less than he coold sell, he 
was able to exact a high price from consumers, which 
encouraged the importation of opium from Chittagong. To 
stop this, it was ordered in July, 1870, that the farmer 
should be supplied with whatever quantity he might require, 
and in 1871-72 the price charged to him was raised from 
Bs. 20 to Bs. 23 for a seer, on the Chittagong prices/' 



APPENDIX F. 



PROGRESS OF POPPT CULTIVATION IN CHINA. 

" It is now placed quite beyond doabt that the CQltiratioa 
of opiam in Cliiiia has been very greatly extended of late 
years, and is &t present ctirried on in tbe western provinces 
on a very large scale. The only financial consolation has 
been the belief that the appetite of tho Chinese for the drug 
was also extending go rapidly as to absorb both the native 
and the Indian drag ; bnt there was recently a heavy fall in 
the price of the latter, and weighty opinions, both official and 
non-official, suggest that the fall is caused by the indigenous 
coltiratioQ, and that this &U is not only permanent, but 
Trams us of the day, shortly approaching, when the imported 
opium will no longer be able to bear a heavy duty in com- 
petition with the native article, and our Indian revenae from 
this source will be lost. There have been repeated alarms 
on this subject, which have blown over; bat the present 
alarm seems more serious and better supported than those 
which have gone before, and it must at least be felt that our 
opium revenue is precarious in the future." 

(The Quarterly Review, vol. 130, Jan., 1871 j Article oa 
" The Revenues of India.") 



"Tbe principal opium-producing provinces are Kaii-Suh, 
Yun-Nan, Si-Ghwan, and Ewei-Chow. In tbe mcmtlis of 
April and May these provinces aro white with tUo puppy 




294 APPENDIX. 

flowers. The native article is very cheap in the proyinces 
in which it is grown, and the consumption is very general 
among the labouring classes. Whilst the foreign article in 
some parts of S'i-Chwan is worth its weight in silyer, tho 
price of the native is only tenpence per Chinese ounce. A 
penny is sufficient to provide an ordinary smoker with enough 
for a day's consumption. There every one seems to indulge 
himself more or less in the pipe. The men and the women, 
the old and the young, seemed to me to be all playing with 
the insidious poison, and my impression was that it only 
required a few years more for opium-smoking to become as 
common as tobacco-smoking in 8i-Chwan. I am within tho 
mark when I say that seven out of every ten of the men, and 
three out of every ten of the women, of Si-Chwan are con- 
firmed opium-smokers. • • . The two other great opium- 
producing provinces present an aspect similar to that of 
Si-Ohwan." 

(Rev. Q. John, in the Nonconformist, 7th Dec, 1870.) 



Letter from Mr. N. Nusserwanjee to the Junior Secretary, 
Board of Revenue. 

" 19tli Janniuy, 1869. 

'' Having just returned from China, I beg to submit the 
following information, which I had collected during my stay 
in that place. It is impossible to give an accurate account 
of the produce of opium in China ; different persons men- 
tion different quantities, but I am led to suppose, after 
inquiry, that not less than 40,000 pounds were produced last 
year, at a cost of 206 to 250 taels per pecul, and the sales 
were effected at Canton at about 850 dels, per pecul. 

" The produce in former years was considerably less, owing 
to the restriction on cultivation, and the cost then was about 
450 taels per pecul, including charges of transit ; but that 
restriction having been removed by the Chinese Government, 
the produce is fast increasing, and the drug itself is becomino> 



POPPY CULTIVATION IN CHINA. 295 

better in quality and stronger in consistence, the immediate 
effect of which has led to depress the China market; and the 
demand of the consumers of both Bengal and Malwa opium 
is gradually decreasing and their prices falling off. The 
Chinese, by mixing their drug with the Bengal or Malwa 
opium, have commenced to imbibe a taste ' for their own 
opium. 

"Some time ago the Bengal Government, in order to 
defeat competition, sold 64,000 chests in one year for expor- 
tation to China and the Straits, and the prices fell down so 
much as to frighten the native cultivators, who discontinued 
cultivating opium for some time through fear of suffering 
loss. 

" Under these circumstances, I beg to submit whether it 
will not be desirable, both for the interests of Government 
and the merchants and cultivators of India, to send in future 
such increased quantities of opium to China, and at such low 
prices as to prevent indigenous cultivation and competition.'' 
(Papers relating to the Opium Question ; Calcutta, 1870, 

page 218.) 



Memorial of Tew Peh-Ch'wan. 

" The memorial by the Censor, Yew-Peh-Ch'wan, is pub- 
lished in exienso in the Gazette. In its preamble it asserts 
(according to the fundamental maxim) that the ' people are 
the foundation of the State, and food the heaven (or svimmum 
honum) of the people,' and that no greater obstacle to the 
production of food exists than the cultivation of the poppy. 
Having spread into other provinces from Kan-suh, the 
original seat of its growth, the plant is now found occupying 
land to the extent of upwards of 10,000 mow (or about 
1700 acres) in each district (Hien). According to the calcu- 
lation that has been made, three mow (say half an acre) of 
rich land will produce sufficient grain for one man's support; 



29G APPENDIX. 

and applying this calculation' to a single province, where 
more than one million mow of land are thus withdrawn from 
prodactive cultivation, hundreds of thousands of persons are 
found to be deprived in this way of the means of subsistence. 
'' The names of sundry districts are appended : in the pro- 
vinces of £iang-su, Ho-nan, and Shan-tuug, where, accord- 
ing to the memorialists' information, the cultivation is 
carried on upon a very large scale, almost equalling that of 
the cereals themselves. The very children have a rhyming 
proverb on tho subject, which may be translated as follows : — 

' Everywlien the flower blowi. 
Sleeps or waking, sUIl it grows ; 
Seep the profit while 'tie there — 
For the tatxae who shall care.' 



€i 



In their greed of gain the inferior classes lose all sight of 
injurious consequences; but unless radical measures be insti- 
tuted to cut off the evil at its source, and pluck it up by 
the roots, the people's food and livelihood cannot be duly 
fostered. 

''Reiterating the statement that the poppy is usurping lands 
imperatively required for the production of food, to such an 
extent that people have actuaUy committed suicide under 
pressure of starvation, with money in their hands ready to 
buy food where none was to be had, owing to this cause, the 
Censor continues with the remark that, as has been observed, 
the evil caused by opium-smoking is worse than the destruc- 
tion caused by floods or the ravages of wild beasts ; yet of 
this the cultivation of the poppy is the very fountain and 
origin. On these grounds he beseeches the Empress Regent 
and the Emperor to proclaim stringent prohibition of the 
growth of the poppy.'' 

(Papers relating to the Opium Question ; Calcutta, 1870, 

page 282.) 



" Sales of Malwa compare favourably, as regards quan- 
tity, with the previous year, but average selling prices were 



POPPY CULTIVATION IN CHINA, 297 

at a slightly farther decline. The chief featnre to remark 
upon is a falling off in the consumption of Patna^ a reason 
for which is gathered from native sources to be owing to 
China-grown drag haying been in more plentiful supply, 
roaghly estimated at about 1700 peculs against 1000 peculs 
in the year 1872, as last spring was much milder that 1872, 
and consequently more favourable for the cultivation of the 
poppy. The cost is said to be about from 800 to 810 dols. 
per pecul, but only very small quantities are taken at one 
time, and probably tliereby a le-kim tax is saved. The quality 
of the drug is, however, rather too thin j it is found necessary, 
in order to meet the native taste, to mix fully one-half of 
Indian growth to furnish sufficient pnng^cy. Persian 
appears to have been driven out of the field as far as this 
port is concerned.'' 

(China Consular Reports, 1873 ; Consul Sinclair at Foo- 
chow.) 



''The amount of native-grown opium is now so con- 
siderable, and it competes so seriously with the imported 
article, that any report on the subject would be manifestly 
defective that did not take this competition into considera- 
tion. Yet the difficulty of procuring any definite or reliable 
statistics as regards the native industry and its results render 
it impossible to do more than draw general inferences from 
such information as may be derivable either from partial 
observation or common report. These inferences would lead 
to the conclusion that the native cultivation of the drug is 
being developed at a rapid rate, and this is confirmed by the 
fiEict that the consumption has of late largely incr^sed, 
whereas it is well known that the import of the Indian drug 
has been stationary, or nearly so, for several years past. The 
usual edicts deprecating the cultivation of such a pernicious 
drag at the expense of cereals and other crops, and prohibit- 
ing its culture under heavy penalties^ have continued to 
appear from time to time, and influential Chinese fane- 



298 . APPENDIX. 

tionaries have not failed^ as heretofore, to arge the Crown to 
take steps towards rescuing the country from the too certain 
rain which must be the consequence. But all to no purpose ; 
the drug is so highly prized as an alterative^ and the desire 
for it as a sedative is so gencr&l amongst all classes, whilst 
the local executive are everywhere so easily bribed into con- 
nivance, that the cultivation is persisted in, and it will, no 
doubt, continue to extend until effects are produced which 
must eventually exercise a vital influence upon the interests 
of the country at large. The result as regards the rival 
import from India cannot be doubted. The supply, as I 
have remarked, has for some time past been limited to about 
an equal rate year by year; and as it is a maxim in commer- 
cial economy that a trade which does not increase must, of 
necessity, tend towards the opposite direction, it follows that 
the only too probable event we have to look forward to is a 
gradual decline and extinction of our share in the trade, 
whenever the Chinese shall have learnt how to grow and 
prepare their produce so as to bring it on a par with the 
Indian staple. 

'' This is a question which merits serious consideration in 
connexion with Indian finance. The subject has, I believe 
and very properly, attracted more than usual attention of 
late on the part of the Indian Government, and, as you are 
aware, I have recently ventured to suggest the expediency 
of at once appointing a commission of inquiry, composed 
partly of officers conversant with the cultivation in India, 
and partly of gentlemen in the consular service familiar with 
the people and language of China, and who might be dele- 
gated to make researches throughout the Chinese provinces 
with a view to establishing the actual truth as regards the 
extent of cultivation, and its probable effects relatively to the 
Indian product. I still hope that such a commission may 
eventually be instituted, and I believe it might further be 
useful, not only in eliciting valuable information as to the 
extent to which the drug is consumed in various parts of the 
country, and its influences upon the people at large, but in 



POPPY CULTIVATION IN CHINA. 



299 



establishing a mass of facts with regard to the inland fiscal 
system^ as to the working of which we at present possess 
but a very vague idea. . • « Intelligent Chw^e ascribe the 
stagnation of foreign trade to the alarming progress which 
opium cultivation is maiking throughout the country. The ea>sy 
production of the drug, and the remurierative returns it gives, 
tlicy declare tend to engross the attention of affiiculturists, and 
to sap nearly every other indusb^. I look upon this suggestion 
as important, and I cannot hut thinh that it indicates, at any 
rate, one source of the blight which seems to be affecting 
branches of tlie trade with ChinaJ* 

(Ibid. ; Consul Medhurst^ Shanghai.) 



''The import of opium, after deducting 190 piculs re- 
exported, was about 2861 piculs, against 2994 piculs in 1 873, 
showing a falling off of 183 piculs. The decrease is explained 
by the increased consumption of native opium. The amount 
reported for taxation at the native Le-kim Tax OESce was as 
follows : — 





1878. 


1874. 


• 

Crude Opium 
Prepared ditto 


IbB. 

84,632 
996 


lbs. 

169,337 
702 


Total .... 


85,628 


170,089 



The quantity upon which tax was collected in 1874 was 
therefore double the amount taxed in 1873. There is also no 
doubt that the smuggling of a commodity so easily concealed 
continued to be carried on extensively. The crop of native 
opium in Yunnan and Szechuan was large, and the demand 
continues to keep pace with the supply. Native opium 
seems, in fact, to be in rather more favour in this part of 



300 APPENDIX. 

China than formerly. It is known to be generally used by 
the inhabitants of the localities where it is grown, and else- 
where by those who cannot afford to buy the foreign drag. 
But it is aUo stated that many well'tO'do Chinese, who had 
been in tlie habit of smoking foreign opium j ha/ve given it up 
in whole or in part in favour of the native article, the use of 
which is believed to be less hurtful to tlie constitution, aiid 
attended with less physical inconvenience. For instance, the 
confirmed smoker of Indian opium generally passes sleepless 
nights, whereas smokers of native opium do not suffer to the 
same extent in this respect. The Szechuan product contains 
mach less pure opium than is contained in Malwa, the 
''touch'' of the former beings according to the report of an 
expert, forty-four, of the latter seventy-five. It is not 
tlicrefore surprising that, as remarked by travellers, boaimen 
and other labourers in Szechuan should be able to smoke naiive 
opium without being unfitted for work/* 

(China Consular Reports, 1874; Hankow, Consul 
Hughes.) 



'' There are sig^s that at no distant date an equalization 
of the two will occur, and this event must be marked either 
by the stoppage of the import of Indian opium, or by such a 
reduction in its cost as will enable it to compete on more 
equal terms with its Chinese rival. In Manchuria it seems 
likely that native opium will in a short time take its place 
as a regular export. As yet the increased production has 
not had that effect, on either the amount or the price of 
Indian opium, taken at Newchwang, which might have been 
anticipated. This is to be attributed to the superior quality 
of the foreign drug, or possibly to the fact that it still guides 
the taste of the native consumer. It is probable that much 
of the drug imported at Newchwang is made use of to 
strengthen and correct the flavour of the native drug. In 
such a case it may occur that an export of the native drug 



POPPY CULTIVATION IN CHINA. 301 

may fop years to come be coincident with a considerable 
import of the foreign article. It is very likely owing to this 
cause that the import of Indian opinm at Tien-tsin, as com- 
pared with Newchwang, has been continually decreasing ; 
the Manchurian drug^ flavoured with Indian opium, being 
able to compete successfully with the latter in the state of 
purity 

" Although nominally the laws of China forbid the culti- 
vation of opium, and although from time to time edicts are 
issued repeating this prohibition, yet there are signs that 
the cultivation of opium is likely to be formally legalized. 
At present, though formally forbidden, it is actually encou- 
raged by the high tariff placed on the foreign drug. At 
Shanghai, Hankow, and Tien-tsin, again, notwithstanding 
the formal prohibition of the growth of native opium, le-kin 
taxes are regularly levied on it, and these taxes are fifty per 
cent, lower than those charged on foreign opium, so that 
the native growth is actually protected against the com- 
petition of its foreign rival. 

" Nor is there wanting amongst influential Chinese a strong 
party who, acknowledging that opium is deleterious, yet 
qualify this idea by the assertion that experience has proved it 
necessary, and who urge on the Government the advisability 
of making a source of revenue out of what it has proved its 
inability to entirely restrain. Allied more or less with this 
party is another, who, taking a mistaken view of political 
economy, would exclude all imports as tending to draw away 
wealth from the country. Why should foreigners, they plead, 
derive all this profit from opium ? If we raise the le-kin 
taxes, and throw obstacles in the way of internal carriage, so 
that the import of the foreign drug may become unprofitable, 
the growth of the native will be encouraged, and the wealth 
which now goes to enrich the foreigner and foreign trade 
generally will remain amongst our own people.'' 

(Ibid. ; Shanghai, Consul Medhurst.) 



APPENDIX G. 



STATISTICAL. 



I. 



Ahouut of Opiuh impobtbd into China.* 





1871. 


1872. 


Malwa • . 


lbs. 
4,684,893 


£ 
5,384,770 


lbs. 
4,847,584 


£ 
5,132,669 


Patna • . 


2,050,328 


2,188,814 


2,128,931 


2,093,519 


Benares • 


1,011,864 


1,035,713 


982,072 


951,434 


Otiher kinds 

• 


170,772 


169,656 


117,439 


118,879 


Gros3 Total 


7,917,357 


8,778,453 


8,076,026 


8,296,002 


Re-exports 


75,741 


82,861 


36,780 


34,621 


Net Total. 


7,841,616 


8,695,592 


8,039,2 16 


8,261,381 



1 From Commercial Beports from H. M. Cousuls in China, 1872. Fart II. 
page 222. 



STATISTICAL. 



303 



II, 



Total Quantity of Opium imported into China dubinq the 
YEARS 1864-72. Compiled from published Betums of the 
Chinese Imperial Maritime Customs. 



BeBcription. 


Qnaatiiy. 


Value. 


MaXwa ) 


Peonls.* 
295,730 


• 

Catties. 

97 

m 


Haikwan Taels.' 
127,164,317 

• 


( s 

Patna > ^ . 

1 hH 


141,662" 


52 


56,665,008 


Benares ' . ■ . 


75,374 


24 


30,149,696 


Pcraian . 


9,204 


23 


3,773,734 


Turkey . . ' . 


^35 


95 


89,661 


Total 


522,205 

t 


291 


217,842,416 



* The Pecnl s 100 catties = 188|lbs. aToirdnpois. 

* The Haikwan Tael = 6«. 8d. 

N.B.—Ont of a total of more than half a million peonls* weight imported in 
nine years, Persia and Turkey together only sent 9440 peculs i i. e. not one- 
fiftieth of the whole. 



304 



ArPENDJX. 



[II 



SUKMAET OF THS OBDINABT InCOHE AND EXPENDITURE OF 

THE British-Indian Empire^ broadly and approximately 
stated in millions sterling and qaarter millions by the 
Quarterly Review, vol. 130, p. 104. 



Revenues. 

Tributes . 


Millions 
sterling. 

1 


EXPENDITUBE. 

Charges of Collection 


Millions 
sterling. 

3 


Tiand Revenue . 


21 


Treaty Allovrances . 


n 


Salt • • • • 


6 


Interest of Debt 


6 


Excise on Spirits and 

Drugs . 
Customs . 


2| 


Guaranteed Railways 
Cost of Army • 
Marine • 


18 


Stamps . • . 
Opium . • • 


i 

6i 


Police 

Civil Administration 


2i 
3 


Total . 


40 


Justice • 
Education 


i 






Telegraph 

Superannuation, &c. 
Public Works • 


U 

3 






Total , 


43 






Deficit . 


3 



NuxBEB of cbests of Bengal and Malwa Opiam exported to 
China and places beyond British India. Finance and 
ReTenne Acconnts, No. 65. 







PcomBenE>l 




Prom 


Biport. 


Official T6V. 


ToChinm. 




TdUL 




ChstM. 


ChBita. 


Cbau. 


Ctl»M. 




183«6 


9.480 


1,670 


11.060 


6,812 


17,862 


1836-36 


13.021 


1.7B6 


14.807 






1836-87 


1(^493 


2,241 


12,734 


20382J 


33,6161 


1837-38 


16.112 


8.195 


19,307 


10,8781 


29,6791 


1838-39 


14,499 


3.722 


18.221 


17,368 


36,674 


1839-40 


3,765 


14,766 


18,610 






1840^1 


5.817 


11,693 


17,410 


12.0224 


29^^21 


1841-42 


10.752 


8.987 


19,739 


14,478 


84,212 


1848-43 


11.867 


4.661 


16,618 


19.369 


36,887 


1843-44 


13.067 


4.792 


17.859 


16.944 


S430S 


1844-46 


14,709 


4,083 


18,792 


18.160* 


86,9421 


1845-46 


16.266 


4^88 


20,553 


17,770 


38,323 


1846-47 


20,668 


4.322 


24,990 


17.3891 


42,8791 


1847-48 


19.434 


4,448 


23,877 


19,891 


43,268 


1848-49 


27,870 


4,417 


32.2S7 


21,392i 


53.6791 


1849-50 


30.996 


4,097 


35.093 


16,613 


61.606 


1850-G1 


28,892 


4,010 


82.902 


19.138 


62,040 


1851-62 


27.921 


4,386 


32.306 


28,1681 


60.4741 


1853-63 


31,4!»S 


4.746 


36.178 


24,9791 


61,157! 


1853-54 


33.941 


6.854 


40,795 


28,1131 


66,9081 


1854-66 


43,952 


7,469 


61.421 


26,9581 


773791 


1865-66 


37.861 


7,087 


44>938 


25,676 


70,614 


1866-67 


86,469 


5,982 


42,441 


293461 


72,2871 


1857-68 


31,878 


6,785 


88,618 


36,1261 


74.7881 


1858-69 


33,858 


827 


34.686 


40,849 


76,634 


1859-fiO 




3.6B1 


25,960 


32,634 


68,484 


1860-61 


leisse 


8,621 


19,309 


43,691 


63,000 


1861-62 


21.332 


5.2« 


26,572 


38,680 


65,262 


1863-68 


25346 


6,815 


32,661 


49,486 


82,1461 


186»-64 


83.815 


8,806 


42,621 


28,210 


70,83 1( 


1864-65 


41.719 


8,484 


60.203 


34.213 


84,416J 


1865-66 


42.697 


11,676 


64,278 


84,166 


88.439J 


1866-67 


87,279 


4,478 


41,767 


83,081 


74.83S 


186r-«8 


40,772 


7,484 


48,266 


38.883 


87,13a 


1868-69 


87.985 


6.281 


44.266 


80,683 


74,949 


1869-70 


43,064 


6,680 


49.784 


38,694 


88.42H 


1870-71 


40,669 


8,064 


48,728 


36,436 


8e.i&i< 


1871-72 


41.669 


7,886 


49,466 




88.789( 


1S72-7S 


84,009 


6,476 


40.485 


42,369 


82364 


1873-74 


84,820 


8,517 


43,337 


4^301 


S8338 



306 



APPENDIX. 



V. 



Net Opium Bevxnui, compabsd with thx Gross Bxvinuxs 

OF India^ FfiOM 1834-35/ 





Nbt Ofiux Rxyivub. 




Gboss 










Rbtskubs 










07 Ikdia 










(leas refunds 


YlABS. 


BSVGAL. 


BOMBAT. 


Total. 


and drawbacks). 




£ 


£ 


£ 


£ 


1884-86 


694^279 


144,171 


888,460 


26,856,647 


1886-86 


1^20,162 


171,846 


1,492,007 


20,148,126 


188e-87 


1,884,097 


200.871 


1,634,968 


22.859,967 


1837-88 


1,486,724 


149,721 


1,686,446 


21,610.557 


1888-89 


696,799 


264,331 


963,180 


21.632,680 


188d-40 


826,076 


11.701 


887,777 


20,151,750 


1840-41 


649,682 


224,646 


874,277 


20,861,861 


1841-42 


808,867 


214,899 


1,018,766 


21,840,018 


1842-48 


1,822,848 


264,288 


1,676.681 


22,616.487 


1848--44 


1,676,948 


848,878 


2,024,826 


28,686,678 


1844-46 


1,806,846 


872,948 


2,181,288 


28,666.246 


1846-46 


2,207,726 


695,624 


2,808,860 


24,270,606 


1846-47 


2,279,389 


606,868 


2,886,202 


26,084,681 


1847-48 


1,291,629 


871,855 


1,668,884 


24,906,302 


1848-49 


1,968,266 


887,507 


2,846,763 


26,896,386 


1849-60 


2,800,797 


729,484 


8,530,281 


27.622,344 


1860-61 


2,066,827 


694,521 


2,750,348 


27,626,360 


1861-62 


2,011,163 


1,128,088 


8,189,246 


27,665,145 


1862-68 


2,601,048 


1,116,889 


8,717,982 


28,429,275 


1868-64 


2,894,996 


964,022 


8,869,020 


27,916.058 


1864-66 


2,282,411 


1,101,191 


8,838,602 


28.959.822 


1866-66 


2,951,612 


1,010,365 


8.961,977 


80,671,958 


1866-67 


2,700,712 


1,169,677 


8360,889 


81,415,559 


1867-68 


4,286,877 


1,631,998 


6,918,876 


81,643,267 


1868-69 


8,898,114 


1,448,277 


6,346,891 


85,965,018 


1869-60 


8,636,463 


1,683,826 


6,169.778 


89,602,850 


1860-61 


8,316,613 


2,441,679 


6,768,292 


42,728,601 


1861-62 


2,471,847 


2,438,468 


4,909,806 


48,487,934 


1862-68 


2,969,789 


8,239,409 


6,199,198 


44,801.686 


1868-64 


8,044v688 


1,480.818 


4,626,606 


44,279,467 


1864-66 


2,888.642 


2,100,882 


4,984,424 


45.395,384 


1866-66 


4,499,227 


2,124,767 


6.623,994 


48,514.749 


1866-67 


8,878,764 


1,851,268 


6,725,017 


41,590,736 


1867-68 


4>696,867 


2,362,706 


7,048,065 


48,068,178 


1868-^ 


4,927,150 


1,804,180 


6,781,830 


48,581,763 


1869-70 


8,776,626 


2,364,246 


6,180,872 


50,241,510 


1870-71 


8,632,325 


2,398,709 


6,031,084 


50,879,068 


1871-72 


6,805,402 


2.851,811 


7,657,213 


49,608,016 


1872-78 


4,269,162 


2,611,261 


6.870,423 


49,678,189 


1878-74 


8,594,763 


2,788,836 


6,333,599 


— ^ — ^ 



* From the Oalcntta Blue Book, Fioanoe and Bevcnae Aoooonts, 1676. 
Part III. AeooonU No. 2 and No. 64 



STATISTICAL. 



307 



VI, 



Extent of Cultivation, total Produce, Quantity of Opium 
produced, number of chests made for excise, number of 
chests m£kde for export. Net Revenue per chest of Bengal 
Opium, and Bevenue per chest on Malwa Opium. Finance 
and Revenue Accounts, No. 69 and No. 71. ^ 



Year of 
ICaanftetore. 



September 
to August. 
184a-49 
1849-60 
1850^1 
1851-52 
1862-^3 
1853-54 
1854-55 
1855^6 
1856-57 
1857-58 
1858-59 

1859-60 
1860-61 
1861-62 

1862-63 

1863-64 
1864r-65 
1865-66 
1866-67 
1867-68 
1868-^9 
1869-70 
1870-71 
1871-72 
1872-73 
1873-74 



Quantity of Land 
coltiTated with Poppy. 



Beegahs.* 

388,044' 
373,616 
412,173 
460,322 
546,031 
616,257 
595.711 
582,848 
543,897 
400,733 
467,646 

434,508 
435,337 
621,165 

748,693 

808,655 
765,185 
637,830 
702,076 
727.247 
694,340 
778.331 
834.035 
863,272 
828,222 
830,593 



Acres. 

242,527 
233.510 
257.608 
287,701 
341,269 
385,161 
372.319 
364,280 
339,936 
250,458 
292,279 

271,567 
272,086 
388,228 

467,933 

505.409 
478.241 
398,644 
438.798 
454.529 
433,962 
486.457 
521,272 
539,545 
517,639 
519,121 



9 





Md8.« 

62,994 
60,935 
61,053 
70,598 
87,457 
96,278 
78,796 
78,895 
59,975 
54,867 
41,329 

41,230 
58,168 
75,044 

93,583 

119,517 
86,276 
81,327 
93,136 
83,750 
86,019 
99,124 
76,739 
81,431 
88,104 
99,308 




Cheets. 

3981 
8981 
1.412i 
867 
1,0434 
1.2131 
1.432| 
l,833ti 
1,6041 

3.353V9 
1,6681 

2,182} 
3,107J 
3,019i 

3,190 

2.622 

2.384 

4.157 

4.596 

6,277 

4,458 

2,679 

3.114 

3.680] 

4,2921 



I • 

II1 



Chests. 

36,385 

34.419 

33.563 

39,465 

48,322 

63,321 

44.4411 

43,907 

32.693 

27,1761 

21,367 

21,427 
29,398 
39,656 

49,727 

64,269 

47,785 

40,901 

48,895 

43,610 

46,894{ 

64.072i 

40.9811 

42,975 

45,770 

54,716 



II 

a> <a 



71 

64 

83 

69 

48 

46 

61 

83 

117 

136 

147 

165 

112 

97 

61 

56 
72 

116 
101 
96 
78 
92 
981 
871 
99 



O Ot 

I- 



* The Opium Beegah =3 27,225 square feet, or { of an acre. 

* The maund = ^Ibs. 

7 Akbarry Opium is opium for consumption in India. 

* fttJTision Opium is opium provided for the Export trade. 



308 



APPENDIX. 



31 



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